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Chapter 38
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Careless People, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Carelessness, Wealth, and Greed
Idealism and the Failed Promises of Technology
Sexism in the Workplace
Bureaucracy and Obstacles to Change
Summary
Analysis
Wynn-Williams isn’t the only Facebook staff member to realize how strange Sandberg acts on the Women’s March, and almost 200 female staffers at the company create a secret Facebook group called Feminist Fight Club. The company eventually gets wind of this and responds by creating a bot that rewards people for being allies to women, keeping a score that is linked to the performance review system.
The Facebook group calls itself a fight club not because it’s violent but because the book and film Fight Club were about a secret underground society. The way that Facebook creates a points system to reward people for being allies once again shows how even when taking supposedly feminist actions, Facebook finds a way to center men by placing a greater emphasis on being an ally.
Active
Themes
Feminist Fight Club allows women to talk more openly about things like harassment at the company. Hearing these stories inspires Wynn-Williams to go to Elliot about Joel’s behavior, even though she isn’t optimistic about the outcome. Elliot, however, wants no part of this and pointedly says that if things don’t work out between Wynn-Williams and Joel, he’s happy to write her a reference.
Wynn-Williams learns more about the level of harassment happening within Facebook, which was particularly noteworthy since the Me Too movement hadn’t happened yet. This openness is contrasted with Elliot, a sometime-ally of Wynn-Williams, bluntly saying that he will take Joel’s side if it comes down to it, showing how false Facebook’s new claims of allyship are.
Active
Themes
As time passes, Wynn-Williams becomes afraid Elliot will fire her. To get things on the record, she mentions her concern with Joel to Facebook’s legal team and how she brough these concerns to Elliot. Soon after, a member of Joel’s team comes to Wynn-Williams to strongly imply that if she stays quiet about Joel, no one will fire her. The lawyers later ask Wynn-Williams if she wants to press an investigation against Joel. After getting a promise from Elliot that Joel will stop any creepiness, Wynn-Williams turns down the investigation. Very shortly after, Joel begins to retaliate, reducing the scope of Wynn-Williams’s job.
Active
Themes
