Job applicant’s bikini photo shamed on Texas company’s Instagram. Then she fired back
A Texas woman’s bikini picture was blasted on a company’s Instagram the same day she applied for an internship.
Now the 24-year-old is firing back and the post has gone viral while the Austin marketing company has gone dark online.
Emily Clow says she got an interview with Kickass Masterminds, an Austin marketing company, on the same day that she applied, KVUE reported. But when she got home, Clow saw the company had shamed her on its Instagram.
A post on the company’s Instagram story showed a screenshot of Clow standing in a swimming pool wearing a red bikini and posing for a picture. Clow had posted the picture to her own account in June.
“PSA (because I know some of you applicants are looking at this): do not share your social media with a potential employer if this is the kind of content on it. I am looking for a professional marketer — not a bikini model,” a caption written over the top of Clow’s photo shows. “Go on with your bad self and do whatever in private. But this is not doing you any favors in finding a professional job.”
Clow tweeted that she felt “objectified” and “baffled” by the company.
“You don’t expect a potential employer to do something like this,” Clow told NBC News. “To have someone that seems really intrigued and wants to meet with you, only to see this is shocking.”
Sara Christensen, the founder of Kickass Masterminds, said Clow wasn’t “disqualified” from the internship because of the bikini photo, according to Metro.
“The woman in question was not disqualified because of her social media profile,” Christensen told the British news site. “In fact, she was not disqualified at all.”
Christensen said the photo was taken down immediately after Clow requested, according to BBC News. Clow disputed that, saying she asked repeatedly and the company blocked her, the BBC reported.
When Clow’s tweets and pictures went viral, the company was hit with backlash. Its website is dark and the company appears to have disabled its Twitter account. The company’s Instagram is set to private.
People are forcefully defending Clow.
“I hate that they’re shaming this person for looking sexy and putting up a photo that she obviously feels confident,” Meghan McCain said on “The View.”
On Twitter, Clow got lots of support from people obviously angry at the company.
This story was originally published October 3, 2019 at 7:01 PM with the headline "Job applicant’s bikini photo shamed on Texas company’s Instagram. Then she fired back."