Laura Fernee claims she’s too pretty to work.

“I’m not lazy and I’m no bimbo,” she says.

Fernee says she quit her job in a medical laboratory in 2011 after enduring constant advances from male co-workers and a lack of professional respect from “jealous” female co-workers.

“Male colleagues were only interested in me for how I looked. I wanted them to recognise my achievements and my professionalism but all they saw was my face and body,” she tells the Daily Mail. “Even when I was in a laboratory in scrubs with no make-up they still came on to me because of my natural attractiveness. There was nothing I could do to stop it.”

The women in her office weren’t much better.

“They assumed because I was pretty, I was stupid, so didn’t take me seriously at first and, because of their own insecurities, were jealous of my looks,” says Fernee.

Now, Fernee is living it up on her parents’ dime, to the tune of many thousand of dollars a month in living expenses. And no, she hasn’t bothered to look for another job, because as she says, she’s too pretty to work.

“The truth is my good looks have caused massive problems for me when it comes to employment, so I’ve made the decision that employment just isn’t for me at the moment.”

Unsurprisingly, Fernee’s story has been met with a lot of criticism – some of it warranted, some of it not. Let’s unpack this, because there’s a lot to unpack here.

Discrimination is no laughing matter

First, there’s Fernee’s claim that her looks were keeping her from being taken seriously at her job and inviting constant, unwanted attention from men. Judging by other articles about Fernee and the comments that have been left on them, many people are dismissing these claims by suggesting she’s not even pretty. That’s ridiculous – both because she’s pretty by almost every standard, and because that kind of thing can happen to just about any women regardless of attractiveness.

I hate to be a wet blanket here, but a lot of this mocking of Fernee isn’t entirely deserved. I know, the knee-jerk reaction to a woman claiming she’s so hot she can’t hold a job is incredulity and derision. (In fact, that’s often the reaction to any conventionally attractive woman acknowledging her own attractiveness – a topic for another article.)

If only we all had such problems! It’s kind of like Bill Gates being like, “Oh, being rich is really tough because ever since I filled up my Scrooge McDuck-style pit of gold coins, I just don’t know where to put all my money. Also, sometimes my butt hurts because my wallet is so thick.” Boo-freakin’-hoo.

But, at the same time, sexual harassment in the workplace is a real and serious thing, and Fernee’s claim that it happened to her shouldn’t be dismissed entirely just because she stated it arrogantly. Fernee worked in a medical laboratory and has a PhD in science, and we are living in a world in which female rocket scientists are primarily lauded for their beef stroganoff-making abilities. Women in science fields have a harder time being taken seriously than their male colleagues. These are facts.

So let’s take Fernee at her word and assume she quit her job because was indeed being treated unprofessionally by her male and female co-workers alike. Can we agree that’s reasonable?

Being delusionally entitled, however, is

Cool! Now we can talk about what’s unreasonable about Fernee’s story, which is everything else.

This 33-year-old grown woman spends more than $5,300 a month of her parents’ money on clothes, haircuts, gym memberships and “socializing.” Plus over $3,000 in rent and utilities, which seems unreasonably high for someone who’s unemployed. There’s a concept called “living within your means,” and Fernee seems utterly disinterested in applying it.

And she’s refused to get a job for two years. Going from being harassed and possibly discriminated against at one job to “employment just isn’t for me” is a pretty big leap. To just assume that every other job will be this way and throw in the towel on financially supporting yourself altogether is so entitled and presumptuous it’s no wonder she isn’t getting much sympathy.

I don’t know. What do you think?