The Testicle Bra Makes the Glam Tax Undeniable
Netflix's Ladies First turned our grooming routine into a punchline. We're not laughing
Last night I watched a 51-year-old executive get fitted for an underwired, push-up testicle bra. The audience was meant to laugh. I started taking notes.
The movie is Ladies First, now on Netflix. Sacha Baron Cohen plays Damien Sachs, an advertising executive on the verge of a CEO seat who hits his head and wakes up in a world run by women.
Buried in the middle of this film is a five-minute montage that dramatizes everything being said in the Glam Tax series. And when a man gets the bill, we’re hit by the undeniable absurdity.
Here’s the setup. Damien, now feeling invisible in this woman-run world, complains to his sister that no one at work listens to what he says. How is he supposed to get promoted?
Her honest answer has nothing to do with what he says. It has everything to do with how he looks.
Men who succeed in business, she explains, groom, work out, wear makeup and wear the right clothes.
What follows is a shopping and spa montage that’s designed as comedy. But “watch” it as an itemized invoice instead:
The "right” clothes
Engineered underwear (the “premium testicle bra,” taking him from an 18G to a 20D)
Full body hair removal: legs, chest, stomach, ears…and
“High frequency sculpting” for the midsection
Teeth
Hairstyling
Face masks and tweezing
Gym sessions and home workouts
Healthy eating
During the shopping spree, Damien’s brother-in-law makes a statement that is oh so familiar:
“If you don’t look good, they will dismiss you without even realizing it. If you look too good, they will pay you attention, but they're not taking you seriously. So you can’t be too unattractive or attractive. It's a very small window which we are working with."
We do not need him to explain the window. We live in it.
Strip away the gender flip and none of this is satire. It’s our life. Including the line items so many of us carry in our budgets and our calendars, the ones tallied in the Glam Tax series and priced in the Glam Tax Calculator.
So why are viewers laughing? Because the joke requires no explanation. Not one second of screen time is spent justifying the premise that appearance is the price of being noticed at work. Every person watching already knows the rules. The comedy works because the reality is universal. Hollywood did not invent the glam tax. But when a man gets the bill, we’re hit by its undeniable absurdity.
But here is the part of the scene almost everyone will miss. It’s the part that’s most important for us to see.
Damien asked how to get promoted. His sister answered how to get noticed.
Those are not the same thing - and neither one is the same as getting ahead. The glam tax is a cover charge, not the career.
What advances careers is what you do once you’re through the door: the ability to talk about the business of the business, to connect your work to revenue, margin, and strategy, to bring business, financial, and strategic acumen into every room you enter. No amount of sculpting, filler, or engineered underwear substitutes for it. Damien spends a fortune to be seen. Being seen is not being promoted. Ask any woman who has been complimented on her appearance in the same meeting where her idea was attributed to a man in the room.
The sequence ends with Damien walking into the office, polished head to toe. The woman CEO looks him over and says, "Wow, Damien! I mean, don’t call HR on me, but it’s nice to see you putting in an effort."
The viewer is supposed to laugh. I didn’t. Because I know we’ve all heard some version of that line delivered, with the same smarmy smile, by someone who knew exactly what HR would say.
Lead ON!
Susan
If you’re following all the advice and it still feels like something’s in the way, I want you to know:
You are not the problem. You are working inside a system that’s withholding something from you.
I’m here to offer what that system can’t or won’t: the business, financial and strategic acumen that opens doors. You’ll find it in every article, in the Be Business Savvy Course and in Your Business Savvy Coach.
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I’m Susan Colantuono, best known for my TED Talk, “The Career Advice You Probably Didn’t Get“ and founder of Be Business Savvy.
Susan