The unemployed aren’t the only people suffering job discrimination these days. Have you noticed what’s going on at American Apparel? They’re being taken to task for their hiring practices, and quite likely their promotional practices, which both require a photo submission and Project Runway-level fashion sense. Reaching further back in time, Hooters was up to their own shenanigans, allegedly firing a girl for being a few sizes too big for their micro-uniforms. (That made her, what, a size 2?)
When the Hoosters story first hit the scene, a member of the Fistful of Talent crew asked if anyone wanted to cover it. My question was, “Why? They’re Hooters. Anyone going in knows what they’re about.” We unquestionably accept this size and shape B.S. for certain jobs. Please don’t tell me you haven’t noticed how cheerleaders look. Models. Actresses. Ballet dancers. While there are bursts of finger-wagging from within these industries and without, we’ve largely become comfortable that certain people look certain ways for certain jobs. At Hooters, and even at American Apparel, these employees are just as much a part of the show, if not “the” show, as with any of these other image-driven jobs. So, to me, Hooters letting a girl go who’s literally too big for their company-provided britches is not comment-worthy (as long as their legal department covered their butts more than those shorts cover their girls’).
However, factoring appearance where it shouldn’t matter is comment-worthy. We’re currently watching one example unfold at Citigroup. A few weeks back, there was another example. Jezebel blogger Hortense commented on Elle columnist E. Jean’s advice. E. Jean gave unpopular, but, in my opinion, accurate advice about how an obese woman’s appearance affects her opportunities for advancement. And Jezebel came down on her hard. She reprimanded E. Jean for advising this woman to do anything but quit that job now. But research backs up E. Jean’s response. Overweight men and women suffer hiring discrimination, lower pay, and fewer advancements. And the discrimination is worse for women than for men. (Who’s shocked?) In the medical community, doctors dismiss overweight patients’ complaints more regularly than their leaner counterparts.
This is our world, and I’m a big fan of changing it. We can and should take umbrage at these occurrences, boycotting products and actively educating others about unfair, discriminatory, and biased practices and reflexes. The more we shrug off these situations, the more we allow them to become routine and acceptable.
I’m also a big believer that changing the world takes time, and in the meantime we have to live in it. Would I counsel the Hooters gal, all of the girls at American Apparel, the woman who wrote E. Jean, and my own daughters not to work for these organizations? You bet. (I’d tell them not to buy from them, either.) And I hope they would know this without my counsel. Sometimes, a lack of alternatives, a lack of self-esteem, and other obstacles get in the way of telling an employer to take this job and shove it.
While we patiently coax the world along, we can get more immediate traction through open communication. Assuming everything’s on the legal up-and-up, which is worse? American Apparel hiding or being clear about their fashion requirements? E. Jean, who offers uncomfortable (and uncomfortable for whom, I might add!) but honest advice, or Jezebel, who pretends our biases and our fiscal realities don’t exist? To me, what’s nefarious is not being upfront about job requirements, whether that’s being a fashion maven or boasting an M.B.A., and a candidate’s expectations for career progression. Bring it out in the open so employees can make informed, intelligent decisions and know what it takes to succeed.
Fran – Great column. On Undercover Boss, the Hooters leaders seemed surprised (!) at women having to fit into an outfit 1-2 sizes too small for them. One manager also explicitly demeaned the women on his staff; the boss ultimately called him on it. Inexplicably, Hooters still claims to be a family place.
I recall that American Apparel had a release for new employees to sign, acknowledging a “highly sexualized” workplace. (There have also been media reports that suggest things have gotten out of hand there.)
Which brings me to exactly your point: be honest about who/what you are, so others can decide if it’s okay. Like you, I’ve never bought American Apparel, or visited Hooters. If I had daughters, I’d give them the same advice you’ve given yours.
I agree that the hidden discrimination is a much greater hazard.
Ray
Fran this post is awesome. You didn’t mess around telling it like it is here. It’s weird how discrimination in some markets is perfectly acceptable. I know at places like Abercrombie and Hollister, store employees are sent out to recruit people just to work at their store based on what they looked like. One time a couple of girls walked up to my girlfriend and I at a mall and offered us jobs on the spot. Didn’t ask us about any work experience or talk to us to see if we would gel well with the rest of the workers. (In all honesty, it was a fairly creepy and awkward moment).
Still, it’s amazing how some places are known for doing this and it’s okay when it’s totally unacceptable elsewhere
Great post, Fran! I have no problem with the stores hiring someone with “fashion sense.” That is clearly related to the job. But I know plenty of people of many different sizes who have fashion sense and look great even if they are not skinny. One is talent, the other is appearance, and when I’m shopping I could care less what someone looks like under their clothes!
Hmmm…couldn’t fashion sense be judged in other ways? Couldn’t they ask the candidates to take a quiz? Assemble an outfit on their own, from a pile of clothes? That would seem like a far safer, PC way to judge that. It seems obvious that an unattractive person is not going to get a job at AA.
My mother and I were just having a similar conversation a couple days ago. I don’t remember how we started talking about this, but she was telling me about when she tried to become a flight attendant. She had to go have professional photos taken and everything. She took the train down to the City and walked in to see all these beautiful TALL women applying for the job…she, at 5’3″/5’4″, was too short. (This was in the early 70′s.)
In general, I hate how we equate health and size. There’s so much we don’t know about what it means to be healthy & fit. What we think we know v. what we really know are two different things. What’s worse is that the free market has run amok and caused us to throw capitalism into the mix of health & size. It’s a mess. Our language often incorporates lookism & sexism in a discussion around size, appearance, and health.
That being said, human beings are born AND trained to discriminate. We use sight, and maybe intuition, to figure out if a situation is safe or dangerous. We use our sense of smell to figure out if food is rotten or just eccentric and different. It’s tough to turn off our brain, and sometimes our brain gets in the way of really good decisions. We’re not as good at being objective as we think we are.
ray, american apparel completely confuses me. i don’t understand how they align their hiring/human resources practices with their “sweatshop” free product development.
drew, nedra, ginger, i definitely don’t mean to suggest we should accept any type of discrimination or settle for people equating one thing (size) with another (skill or health, for example). we need to call these things out, act on them, support the voices of those affected.
laurie, i think we’re more trained to discriminate about size, than born to it (on the looks side, i feel differently). we see certain images from the days that we’re knee-high to a grasshopper…it’s bound to sink in.
thanks for reading, everyone.
f
Your article is right on. As an overweight woman in the rat race, I know that my options are more limited. If I’m not mistaken Michigan State University did a study on the overweight men v. women issue, too. There was a clear negative impact for women. Insofar as these specific employers, I have a hard time imagining that their behavior is really surprising to anyone.
christine, thank you for sharing your personal perspective. after i once shared my surprise that we continue to be shocked by certain things, a friend commented that being surprised was better than being dulled to it. at least with surprise, we keep fighting back.
f
Fran, I think the operative word in your article is ‘patiently’. We can get enraged with the conduct of a company or an individual, but we must remember that it takes an awfully long time to turn a huge ship around. The problem I personally see with people’s anger in these situations is that they tend to be directed at the wrong people – the ‘little guys’ working on the ground level who don’t really have any say in creating policies that end up looking discriminatory. Look at the BP crisis – boycotting locally-owned stores doesn’t hurt BP, it hurts that local business owner & puts people out of work. But I digress…
Thank you for sharing this.
This is a tough fight, because men and women are designed differently. Women are more creatures of emotion, and men are more visual. It’s really hard (and I’d even say impossible) to change the way a person is hardwired. Your suggestion of actively educating I think is the best – I’ve always been a big believer that education is the first (and biggest) key to making real change, because people will dismiss that which they do not understand. I especially think educating girls and young women that their sexuality is not the only thing they have to offer this world would be a great place to start. Men, this is a great opportunity to take active roles in your daughters’ lives. Women, this is a great way to stop this cycle of unrealistic imagery of what women look & act like.
My two cents
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