Rant #741: Oy Vey! (Part 2)

Yesterday, I spoke about a group of Ultra-Orthodox Jews who set up an enclave at New York's CitiField to tell the masses about the evils of the Internet.


Today, well, it's another day, and another story.


According to the Daily News, a woman claims that she was fired from her fashion industry job “for being too busty.”

Lauren Odes (not the woman pictured above) said two days after getting hired in April as a data entry worker at a Garment District lingerie manufacturer, a supervisor told her the Orthodox Jewish owners were not happy with her attire. Odes said she was wearing a dress that day at the Native Intimates lingerie company, but due to her naturally large bustline, the owners reportedly became outraged.

She agreed to accommodate the owners by wearing a gray T-shirt and black jeggings with rain boots the next day, but again, the female supervisor came with complaints from the bosses.

“Lauren, try taping down your breasts to make them appear smaller,” she said, according to Odes.

The next day, Odes said, she wore a high-waisted black dress that fell to her knees. Once again that didn’t pass muster with her masters, who complained they could see the back of her bra straps.

Odes said she was given a choice — go across the street and buy a “a sweater that comes to your ankles as an outfit,” or cover up completely in a bright red bathrobe with a black guitar motif the supervisor had pulled off the rack.

When she donned the robe, Odes said her co-workers laughed at her. She said after 15 minutes of abuse, she broke down crying and went out to buy another outfit.

While she was shopping, she was fired.

According to celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, who is now representing the woman, “She was simply fired for being attractive and for not conforming to the religious strictures imposed by top management.” 

Allred has filed a workplace gender and religious discrimination complaint against the woman's former employer.

“We should not be judged by the size of our breasts or the shape of our bodies,” said Odes. “I understand there are Orthodox Jewish men who may have their views on how a woman should dress and how much she should be covered, but I am Jewish as well and don’t feel any employer has the right to impose their religious beliefs on me."

No, but don't you think Odes should have realized, after the first altercation, that this was how this place was going to act, and if she wanted to work there, she was going to have to conform to their dress code?

Women's attire has become more risque in recent years, and just about "anything goes" in many workplaces now. 

However, there are still rules at many places of work about attire. My place of work has men wear business attire for four days a week--meaning men wear ties, dress pants and dress shirts, and women wear professional attire that doesn't show anything--and on Friday, we can wear more "casual" fare--meaning no ties on the men and women wear attire that doesn't show anything.

Over the years that I have been here, we have had a couple of instances where both men and women have received slight reprimands for what they've worn on casual Friday. 

But women's wear, in particular, has become more provocative in recent years. Women often walk around in the office as if they were at the beach, and it simply isn't professional.


And yes, there is a difference between how men and women are built, and yes, women have to be more careful about what they wear, not only at the workplace, but anywhere, even at the supermarket.

In this case, the woman was dressed nicely, but her "assets" simply popped out at people in a business run by owners who are kind of strict about attire, especially on women.

Say what you will, but management decides workplace attire, and yes, busty women can wear clothing that doesn't accentuate their attributes as much as what this woman wore evidently did.

And remember, this place is run by Orthodox Jews. If you want to work there, conform to their workplace attire rules, or get out of there in a hurry.

I don't know if this case bears any merit--Allred has, on more than one occasion, taken on similar cases which have sat on the fence between cases with merit and cases stinging of "yellow" legalities--so we will just have to see what happens here.

Look, I don't mind a women dressing fashionably for work, but you have to know the workplace.

This women learned about the workplace, but I just don't think she got it, if you know what I mean.

Of course, her former employer could have been more careful as to who they hired. When they interviewed her, what was she wearing--a head to toe body suit?

Whether this case has any merit in a court of law is anyone's guess. 


I will try to keep you abreast of what happens (heck, I couldn't avoid it).