- Share This Post
- submit
- 11
-
Sparkle (0)
Not the salt of the earth but the sugar of affluent youth, Abercrombie & Fitch with its image of sexy college prep gods and goddesses is the bastion of unabashed elitism, promoting the perfect clothes, the perfect fit, and the perfect body. It's alleged that this image goes beyond its slick print ads to the brick and mortar floor of its stores from which a disabled employee shouts that A&F discriminates against mortals such as she.
From the UK's Daily Mail:
A disabled law student is suing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch for discrimination, claiming it made her work in a stockroom because her prosthetic arm didn't fit its public image.
Riam Dean, 22, was just days into a part-time job at the U.S. firm's flagship London store when she says she was asked to leave the shop floor.
She claims she was told she broke the company's 'Look Policy', which dictates how members of staff are meant to present themselves.(DM)
Dean says that after she was hired she was given "a 45-page handbook listing in minute detail the company's strict Look Policy." The look is "a 'natural, classic American style'."
"Miss Dean, who normally wears long-sleeved tops to disguise the join between her upper arm and artificial limb, says she was told to buy a plain white cardigan to wear over her uniform," according to the Daily Mail's story. However, one day the store's look police came through and asked her to take the cardigan off. Shortly after this incident, her manager sent her to work in the stockroom because she was not following "the look policy."
In an exclusive interview with ZeldaDaily.com, Dean says her A&F experience caused her to question her self-worth, and she called her manager's attitude "combative and aggressive."
It made me feel as though she had picked up on my most personal, sensitive and deeply buried insecurities about being accepted and included. Her words pierced right through the armour of 20 years of building up personal confidence about me as a person, and that I am much more than a girl with only one arm. She brought me back down to earth to a point where I questioned my self worth. My achievements and triumphs in life were brought right down to that moment where I realised that I was unacceptable to my employer because of how I looked. I have never before encountered the stark reality of this attitude, but deep down I have always feared this, and in that moment my worst fears were realised. My entire perception of my own my self worth was shattered. It was a moment of clarity and pain. (Direct quote from Dean to Zelda.com)
A&F has been sued before, the last time for racial discrimination. In 2004, among some minority groups it still had the image of being "just plain racist." And when it's not being accused of racism or sexism, it's being charged as "too risqué."
Dean's claim is gaining momentum on the Net. With no love lost, a writer at Jezebel opens Dean's story guns blazing:
Just in case their racism, sexism, and general awfulness hasn't been enough to turn you away from Abercrombie & Fitch after all these years, here's another glimpse of the inner workings of the horrible store.(Hortense)
She continues telling of the store's obsession with thinness before sharing more of Dean's plight.
And teen blogger Steph at Reviewer X, a potential member of the very market Abercrombie & Fitch targets, cuts the clothier no slack.
Do you like the idea of your money being used to keep a company perpetuating these ideas alive? Do you want that?
Me? I sure as hell don’t, and even if I had the money to buy things at A&F, I’d still stay far, far away. If I was interested in that look I would find somewhere to get it. (Reviewer X)
Gee, it sucks to be the promoter of unapologetic white wealth, natural youth, western beauty standards, and sleek, stylish sex. You can't send blacks and the disabled to the dungeon at will, and the ungrateful peons you hire just won't give you a break.
Nordette Adams is a BlogHer.com CE who is also the African-American Books Examiner at Examiner.com
