Sylva Stoel had been working at JCPenney for two weeks when her boss approached her. The 17-year-old was told that her shorts were “too revealing” and was sent home. Thing is, she purchased the apparently controversial shorts at JCPenney, in the “Career” section.
When he asked her how long it would take to go home and change, she chose to quit.
“I bought [the shorts] thinking they were pretty professional,” she said. “They didn’t show anything other than my legs, which I don’t think is too provocative.” (Via)
The JCPenney dress code prohibits any employee from wearing shorts to work, a “policy that applies to both male and female associates.” Stoel told Mic that “the only word the manager said on dress code during my job orientation was that denim was not allowed, t-shirts were unacceptable, spaghetti-strap tank tops weren’t allowed, and skirts couldn’t be ‘too short.’ But I was never warned that wearing linen shorts to work could get me sent home.”
https://twitter.com/queenfeminist/status/624618091935236096
“I think the most detrimental thing about dress codes that specifically target women is that they are often defending the idea that women must dress in a way that doesn’t provoke or distract men. This reasoning impossibly casts the woman as both the offender and the victim when they have done nothing wrong,” Stoel told Mic. (Via)
There’s a lot of unfortunate truth in that, but I’m not sure it applies to this specific case. It’s a dumb policy, but JCPenney specifically prohibits shorts, for both men and women. It’s not sexist; it’s the dress code. This is why working retail is often the worst, unlike blogging, where you can wear whatever you want. When will the world start listening to the stay-at-home #content creators?