The Truth About

Discrimination Against 'Hot' or 'Curvey' Women in the Workplace.

This is a topic close to my heart.

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/galleries/was_debrahlee_lorenzana_too_sexy_to_work_at_citibank/was_debrahlee_lorenzana_too_sexy_to_work_at_citibank.html


(cut and paste link to browser)

Not only because I am a civil litigator with some Title VII experience, but because I have always been, and especially so in my younger days as an associate in larger firms, rather regularly the brunt of inappropriate remarks by male bosses, and the object of jealous caddiness of older or uglier women. I dressed in suits- I didn't show cleavage. I didn't overdo makeup. With small exception I didn't ever accept invitations out for dinners with partners unless they involved clearly client meetings.
Yet, one partner insisted in what I considered pimping me out to a client who insisted on tennis doubles with me and the partner even wanted to help me buy a condo in the partner's building and was trying to arrange dates. Another partner couldn't stop calling me "sweet knees" - whatever that is supposed to mean. Another one (different firm) made a smart -A comment "once Black never Back" when I told him I was helping the political campaign of an African American- who I was not remotely 'involved' with. I was more than a bit shell shocked by all of this- they didn't warn me in law school in the late 1980s about any of it. I didn't sue anyone because I was afraid of the certain blacklisting, but I tried to work with just women for a while to avoid it. Anita Hill became my quiet hero and I was glued to the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings.
Sometimes the women were vicious in big firms. One older woman competing with another man for partner started a vicious rumor I was "involved" with that man, and she took to giving me "friendly" advice on how I should not be seen around him at social events. Thank you. Really helpful.

This has carried over into other areas of my life. In church settings because of all the insane paranoia about sexual suits involving clergy priests have been so afraid of me one even got a lawyer. I didn't threaten anything- i thought he was insane- they were just being careful. I listened to one sermon in which a priest asked basically 'are you too sexy for the pew?

This strikes me as just crazy discrimination for being just a bit cuter than average- and not much. The wild thing about all of this is that I am not much cuter than average- just basically average. So it happens to A LOT OF WOMEN. It strikes me as more the rule than the exception.
OK I do have a niece who is a legitimate model, my grandmother modeled hosiery for Filenes in the 20s and my aunt modelled bras for the SEARS catalogue. But me- I am just a rather nerdy lawyer with a face full of freckles who looks more like a studious version of Alfred E. Newman than the hot shot in the above link.

The sad fact is that there seems to be an inverse proportion to attractiveness and job security for women. Ugly women have better job security- they get harassed less, they have to consequently complain less or tell men to stop it, and they are left alone to do their work more.
Men don't get paranoid around them like they are going to trump up some false harassment claim if they ask them out for lunch. (compound that times a thousand if you have actual federal court experience prosecuting Title VII cases)

It's easier being ugly in America. And that, my friends, is pathetic.

So I want Kagen on the Court just because she is a woman. Call it reverse discrimination if you want to- I don't care. I want more women on the Court- of all shapes and sizes. We are half the population, we should be half represented on the Court. Because we experience things you cannot imagine, fellas.