Publicist To 'Lean In' Reviewer: 'There's A Special Place In Hell For You'

There's been so much debate over the responses to Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg's new book on women advancing in the workplace that even the reviews of Lean In have been reviewed.

But Brandee Barker, a former Facebook public relations executive who has been promoting the book, seems to have taken particular offense to one of the more critical takes authored by Katherine Losse, whose review recently appeared in Dissent Magazine. Barker apparently messaged Losse and said, "There's a special place in hell for you."

The two women are former co-workers.

As New New York Magazine noted, Losse first mentioned the message in a tweet: "Brandee Barker who used to run Facebook PR just sent me a message that says "There's a special place in hell for you."

Losse then tweeted a screen grab of the message itself.

Wow. twitter.com/fake_train/sta…

— kate losse (@fake_train) March 27, 2013

Barker's Twitter page, on the other hand, has been quiet since news of the "special place in hell" comment came out. She declined to comment on the situation to The Huffington Post.

While Sandberg's book has been hailed by some as The Feminine Mystique of the modern corporate world, others have taken issue with its perceived elitism and have argued that its advice is neither applicable to women with less financial means nor to single mothers.

Losse's review of Lean In relies heavily on the argument that Sandberg's book creates a feminist model to further Facebook's ethos of forgoing a life outside of work.

Losse, who authored a book about working at Facebook called The Boy Kings weaves her own experiences at Facebook throughout her criticisms of Sandberg's book:

Why not focus on renovating the pay structure so that women aren’t denied raises in order to make male peers more comfortable? The faster my career accelerated at Facebook, the more my financial returns diminished...Leaning in, then, starts to look like it can benefit companies more than it benefits workers, if companies, while asking that their women employees “lean in,” refuse to commit to equitable pay.

via Books on HuffingtonPost.com http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/28/brandee-barker-lean-in-publicist-special-place-in-hell_n_2970717.html?utm_hp_ref=books&ir=Books