Essay: Going for the Look, Risking Discrimination

Many companies such as Abercrombie & Fitch, American Apparel, Hollister, etc., all have a company “image” that they like to obtain and are well known for. Usually the “image” is really good-looking, stereotypical ‘white’ young adults that work in the store and model all the clothes, on the runway, the bags, the billboards and what not. Companies like these tend to have a method of hiring people based on looks and not qualifications. Yes, I agree that the company shouldn’t hire someone who looks like they should be working at a place like Hot Topic rather than American apparel or Abercrombie & Fitch and vice versa, but there is a certain extent as to when that is right and how far it can go until it starts to be morally wrong.

Marshal Cohen; a senior industry analyst with the NPD Group, a market research firm, says:

“Being able to find a brand enhancer, or what I call a walking billboard, is critical. It’s really important to create an environment that’s enticing to the community, particularly with the younger, fashionable market. A guy wants to go hang out in a store where he can see good-looking gals.”

Cohen says that having, what he calls a “walking billboard” is important and I would have to agree because then the store gets more advertisement, but then every time a person buys a clothing item or cologne for any store, they always have the brand name; visible or not, it’s still there. Creating an environment that would be attractive to young adults to come and want to roam around in the store. The environment that is created by stores like Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister, American Apparel, etc., just walking past the store you see a dark entrance, like there’s a mystery inside and the only way to know is to walk in the store; then you hear really loud, well-known music playing, and finally the smell of the famous company cologne that they sell.  

 I believe it’s important to create an environment that young adults would be attracted to, but it shouldn’t be about creating an environment where only “good-looking” people should be a part of. Hiring only people who are attractive looking can be troublesome, mostly for the store and just a little bit for those who apply for a job but don’t fit the company “image.” It mostly causes problems for the stores because if they hire only attractive looking people and those people they hire aren’t actually qualified for the job, then the company will lose customers which consequently will lose income for the month. It’s a problem for anyone who wants to work at a store like Abercrombie & Fitch and don’t fit the company “image” because their self-esteem will drop a little bit, and then they won’t have enough confidence to really put themselves out there.

Steven Greenhouse, author of Going for the Look, Risking Discrimination says:

“Hiring attractive people is not necessarily illegal, but discriminating on the basis of age, sex or ethnicity is. That is where things can get confusing and contentious.”

       Mr. Serrano said:

“if someone came in with a pretty face, we were told to approach then and ask them if they wanted a job.”

As part of the job, anyone who works at Abercrombie & Fitch are required to go up to a person who looks like they could fit the “image” the company wishes to obtain. It’s amazing how they just go up to a person and they don’t even think if that person is qualified enough to even b working in the store or not. They only base hiring “method” on looks, and not a skill.

The company “image” is really not all that. They have this “image to make everyone want to dress just like the models, and the sales clerks who are wearing the products. “if you see an attractive person working in the store wearing Abercrombie clothes, it makes you want to wear it too,” says Matthew Sheehey, a high school senior from Orland Park, a Chicago suburb. In some cases, that could be true, because you know that you could fit the company “image” and you would fit right in and you could advertise for the company after buying a pair of sweats or something.

“The problem with all this image stuff is it just reeks of marketing for this white-bread, Northern European, thin wealthy, fashion-model look,” said Donna Harper, supervisory attorney in the commission’s St. Louis office. “We all can’t be Anglo, athletic and young” Harper makes a good point about how not everyone can have the perfect “fashion-model” look, and if that’s the image a store is looking for then they are going to have trouble finding employees, because everyone is different.

In my opinion, it shouldn’t matter whose working in the front of the store and whose working in the storage unit, as long as they are polite and I have good customer service. Even if the person could belong in the “company image” but they don’t get hired because of how they look or how attractive they are, that’s where I start drawing the line.

Stephen J. Roppolo, a New Orleans lawyer who represents many hotels and restaurants, said:

“Hiring someone who is attractive isn’t illegal per se. But people’s views on what’s attractive may be influenced by their race, their religion, their age. If I think Caucasian people are more attractive than African-America people, then I may inadvertently discriminate in some impermissible way. I tell employers that their main focus needs to be hiring somebody who can get the job done. When they want to hire to project a certain image, that’s where things can get screwy.”

The message that Roppolo is sending out is a bit confusing but then he says, “I tell employers that their main focus needs to be hiring…things can get screwy.” That brings up a good point and proves that looks isn’t the main thing that a company should be looking for especially because the owners of the companies want to make money which is the main reason they open the store in the first place.