The “casting couch” is code for men in positions of authority in Hollywood and on Broadway using their power to extract sex from aspiring actresses in exchange for acting roles. Call it rape with a bow on it. Psychobabblers tell us rape is about power, not sex. Bullocks. It’s about both. But although the casting couch in the entertainment industry is a variation of the Pay to Play practice seen in politics, there’s also a layer of intimidation designed to keep her from believing her work and talent can ever be enough, telling her: “This is what you’re meant for.”

Another contingent, not exactly chaste but arguably not as swinish as their Hollywood and Broadway comrades, are the pop culture Brahmins of cool—late-night television “comedians.” This casting couch culture, arbiter of who is allowed to be in the in-crowd, can be especially snide when directed towards never married middle-aged women without children who commit the additional sin of not being traditionally feminine, such as former Attorney General Janet Reno. Janet Wood Reno (July 21, 1938 – November 7, 2016), a lawyer and public official, served as the first female United States Attorney General. Appointed by Bill Clinton, she held the position from 1993 to 2000, making her the longest-serving Attorney General since William Wirt, who held the job from 1817 to 1829.

At 6 foot two, Reno towered over most of her male colleagues; her manner was terse (she famously said “I don’t do spin”); her wardrobe no-nonsense business attire (imagine that!). If she was blunt with others, she was equally blunt with herself, taking full responsibility for things that went wrong on her watch, such as the deadly Waco raid (even though erroneous reports from the FBI were a big factor in the government debacle). Still, the buck stopped with her, and she didn’t shy away from owning it. In the end it cannot be denied that Reno was an accomplished woman with a long career—subjected to cheap jokes from the aforementioned Brahmins for the crime of not being frilly. Case in point, Jay Leno, who wisecracked that an appointment Reno had to make was her toughest decision since “boxers or briefs.” At the other end of the scorn spectrum was Saturday Night Live’s portrayal of her: Performed by Will Ferrell in drag, she was depicted as a childish, awkward, boy crazy, school-girl wallflower, which recast her as a pathetic “what you’re meant for” wannabe. Hey guys, does it ever get old?

The titular chaste man with his proverbial casting couch doesn’t dwell in the offices of Show Biz moguls or roam television soundstages. Rather he inhabits fraternal opinion lairs with the organizational structure of a floating crap game, boardrooms (once the secretaries have gone home), and anywhere he has accrued office-politics capital to cash in on. Just because this power isn’t brandished in an obviously public way doesn’t mean it’s without swagger or arrogance, honed sharper when wedded to the notion that “God’s Work” is being done via a natural order strictly defined by woman’s purpose on earth, prosaically packaged as: “This is what you’re meant for.” Different context, different men, same pile of beans, and with the same aim—to deny a woman the respect her work should rightly earn her.

Why? To teach her a lesson. To drive home the understanding that her main role is to procreate. To be fair some in the “God’s Work” group also believe that’s the main role of men as well, and since not all women are fertile, the procreation dictate isn’t set in stone. What is set in stone is that she should couple. If she does that, she can work without censure—once she’s seen to the provisos, it becomes palatable and allowable. But if she hasn’t, her career is an unnatural diversion from her true calling, which is to partner.

As usual, with the Battle of the Sexes there’s a double standard. A man who never couples is “married to his work,” and it’s nobody’s business. Women are not afforded that privacy. Every man is his own man, but it seems women are seen as part of a herd. I wonder if this double standard is (at least partially) in their Darwinian self-interest: Guys married to their work means more gals for the rest of us! Whatever the reason, respect for a man’s career and work is never dependent on his marital status. Granted, in politics, being seen as a family man makes for good press, but in academia, law, and most other professions it’s his business and off limits. Not so the ladies.

Call it kneecapping with a bow on it.