Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
In Other News, Stendahl Did Not Write "The Cream And The Clear"
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2004 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals didn't think Darlene Jespersen demonstrated that her employer discriminated against women. They required female employees to wear makeup. Regardless of whether that's a reasonable or constitutionally legal requirement, here's the laughable part:
Jespersen argued that cosmetics are expensive and take time to apply. But she presented no evidence of the cost of complying with Harrah's makeup requirements, or how they exceeded men's burdens in following the company's short-hair and clean-fingernails standards, said Judge A. Wallace Tashima.Yes and yes! Come on![Judge Sidney] Thomas, in dissent, said a jury should be allowed to decide whether putting on makeup is more expensive and time-consuming than not putting it on, and also whether the policy imposed intangible burdens on women.
