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Sorry. You're too ugly to work here!
July 27, 2009 - 1:12pm
According to a tipster, American Apparel's pervy madman CEO, Dov Charney, is demanding the firing of employees he deems unattractive and thus detrimental to the "AA aesthetic," as he feels they may be hurting his bottom line.
http://gawker.com/5323472/we-predict-more-lawsuits-in-dov-charneys-future
I like how they included a picture showing he's not too handsome himself.
So only beautiful people can sell his crap eh?!
Sounds like a Class A asshole.
Lookism gets much less attention than classism, sexism, and racism even though it is clearly comparable in reality.
Maybe that wasn't so 30 years ago when these academic disciplines took off.
*******
American Apparel makes the ugliest clothing imo, I just don't see how anybody shops there. Who wants to look like the box of fluorescent crayola?
Sounds like a great advertising opportunity! Does rabble.ca have any more ad space to sell to a long-time client?
Don't you mean "a one-time client"?
And also, Catchfire, have you ever, even ONCE, been denied the opportunity on babble to criticize that client? Please do point out that time, or the effect that accepting that one ad had on our editorial policy.
I suppose there's a perverse symmetry in all of this, given that I'm probably also too ugly to shop there.
So am I, Snert. :D
Sorry Michelle, it was just a jab based on a pet-peeve, and not backed with a whole lot of force. As for my objections to a past and pretty much dead issue, they were laid out in a (now inaccessible) thread.
I know, I was just looking for it.
Sigh. :(
Anyhow, no worries. We hit each other's mutual pet peeves, I guess. :D
First of all, any and all discrimination based on someone's looks is despicable and unacceptable.
However, I have seen no stories recently about "ugly" people being arrested for entering their own home.
Doesn't American Apparel cater predominately to hipsters? Not only is that demographic hardly the most attractive out there, but they would likely get off on the irony of having "unattractive" people provide fashion advice.
Basically, from a moral, legal and even business perspective this just awful.
Obviously you don't know the same hipsters I know...
What are hipsters?
Reality is that appearances have always been an issue - as the saying goes, you have exactly one chance to create a first impression. And in apparel sales that's all that counts.
Years ago there was a stink when certain designer jeans manufacturers refused to make jeans above a 34" waist (and they argued that was too big).
To rephrase things, if, instead of saying "you're ugly" the guy had simply said "you will sell $X of goods or you're history" would anyone be happier? Especially if it could be argued that how much you sold was a function of your appearance?
Do you realize the irony of your response?
I used the bold function to illustrate it.
Oh, he is. This is just the latest in a long series of - shall we say - less than professional actions on his part.
What the hell are you talking about? All I am trying to say is that there's no real comparison to be made between the prejudice faced by (for instance) black people, and that faced by the less-than-attractive. Can you really, with any shred of seriousness, try to compare them?
This explores it nicely. Hipster Olympics
My favourite thing about American Apparel is how they promote themselves as the moral choice, because they don't exploit foreign workers. Of course, it's hard to sexually harass people on the other side of the ocean. And, Dov probably finds all those non-white low-wage foreigners too ugly to hire anyways.
I also love their use of 12 year old girls to sexualize their clothes. Real classy.
Even classier when you consider that Dov not too long ago used Woody Allen's picture without permission and then tried to paint Woody Allen as a pervert. This creep Dov is far worse.
What a jackass. And the clothes at AA are horrible. Really really ugly stuff.
Not in his stores, no.
American Apparel(APP), no stranger to controversial headlines, said Wednesday that the government has found that 1,800 of its employees are either illegally working in the U.S. or potentially illegal to work.
Those employees comprise about one-third of the clothier's Los Angeles manufacturing operation.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/manufacturing/2009-07-01-american-apparel_N.htm?csp=34
I went into an AA the other day and will probably never enter one again. Seriously, what an assault on taste that store is. Employees should be banned from wearing his clothes if he's really concerned about attrativeness levels.
As for firing employees who are not attractive, it is just another in a long list of despicable actions by this class A A hole. Of course, this merely puts him in the company of bar owners and restaurant owners everywhere. It's a double assault as well, because most of the people in these industries are also young (as that is what we value as attractive) and may not have the wherewithal to self advocate and sue the shit out of this jerk.
Of course, if they were worried about being the moral choice, they could have given foreign workers good jobs.
That's what turned me off of the brand right from the start, the ugly jingosim that practically yells "we only sell clothes made my good, decent, Americans, not dirty Mexicans". Of course, some people are easily fooled into thinking that denying foreigners an opportunity to work and sell you their products (be they clothes, cars or produce) is "progressive".
Ummm, I'd rather buy clothes from someone being exploited in Canada or California than someone who is worked to death in the 3rd world at a factory where they are rarely allowed off the premises and sleep in a barracks. I dont think buying a product made by someone crippled by repetitive strain injuries is doing them a favour. If this guy is paying a legal wage to people without green cards, good for him. If he's using illegals because he's paying them $1 an hour than he should have his liver devoured by ravens, as he hides behind sweatshop free.
Also, my friend has a t-shirt "Beer: Helping ugly people get laid since 1455."
I can laugh at this because I am preternaturally beautiful. When I show up at a peace demo its like I'm Justin Timberlake.
And Dav is a beast. He looks like a funhouse mirror.
to be honest, i'm all for making the stuff in NA as opposed to a sweatshop, it's the rest of the company's actions that piss me off.
Yes, Catchfire, its normally not cool to take delight in the misfortune of others, but in this case......
To see details of Dov's downfall:
http://www.insolvencynews.com/article/show/American-Apparel-on-brink-of-collapse
Thanks for the link, ftmc--and welcome to babble! I'm not usually one for schadenfreude (ok, maybe I am) but in Dov's case, I'll make an exception. It takes a special talent to take an ethical policy of paying living wages to North American textile factory workers and utterly squander any good will earned from it simply by being the biggest, slimeiest creep the world has ever seen.
I wonder if rabble is still running AA ads... (That one's for you, Michelle
).
The A1 person and buena presencia ("good presence") is a common requisite for an application in Latin America. It means "pretty, tall, nice curves (especially breasts), european facial features and white(r) skin". And there's no way around it, especially when they require you to send a photo with your application. It is like having a thousand rejections based on uncontrollable factors before getting a job interview.
Here's a good case and point for those that read spanish:
http://aptitus.pe/aviso/p8btu/promotoras-para-ventas
The three requisites are:
between 20 and 30 years old
good appearance
experience
Sadly, I could find a hundred more examples like this today alone.
I'm pretty sure the slimiest creep award goes to good ol' Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild fame. Now that is a true slimeball. Oh and even worse? Someone is marrying this pervert.