Well there it is, that old dress code again. In discrimination 101 the first thing you learn is that if you really have an irrational and wholly ungovernable dislike for a human being and accordingly you want to get rid of them lickety split you just trot out the old "D.C."
The following excerpt comes to us via The Inclusion Daily Express:
Employee With Prosthetic Arm Says Abercrombie & Fitch Humiliated Her
(BBC News)
June 24, 2009
LONDON, ENGLAND-- [Excerpt] A woman claims clothing firm Abercrombie & Fitch made her work in the stockroom because her prosthetic arm did not fit the shop's image.
Riam Dean told an employment tribunal she felt "diminished" and "humiliated" by the incident at its Savile Row store in central London.
The 22-year-old law student is suing for disability discrimination and seeking up to £20,000 in damages.
Miss Dean, who was born with her left forearm missing and wears a prosthetic arm, said she was granted special permission to wear a cardigan to cover the join in her arm.
But she told the tribunal she was later removed from the shop floor and made to work in the stockroom because the cardigan did not adhere to the strict dress code.
Entire article:
Disabled woman sues clothes store
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/8116231.stm
**
As a disability advocate of a certain stripe I must say I particularly like the phrase "She was granted special permission to wear a cardigan to cover the join in her arm."
In case you are curious: a few months ago the store in question hired half nude male models to advertise its grand opening. I wonder if "special permission" was granted for the boys to cover the join in their respective nether regions?
I expect that the feckless and shallow management of London's new Abercrombie would on that occasion have enjoyed full frontal nudity but they knew this would be against the law.
Well yes. And its also against the law to make people with disabilities "cover up" and its also against the law to demote them because of their physical differences. Yes, even on Savile Row.
For more on this story visit the following sites:
http://zeldalily.com/index.php/category/riam-dean/
http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Riam+Dean
http://en.wordpress.com/tag/riam-dean/
S.K.
The irony of the story to me is that the woman is without question beautiful. The fact she is missing part of her arm not relevant. But at Abercrombie such superficial things are important I suppose. I would never purchase clothes at this store because they are grossly over priced and the music so loud it is impossible to think
Posted by: wjpeace | June 30, 2009 at 07:34 AM