An attractive woman can definitely not do anything about her looks or try to tone it down. However, the state of Iowa in the United States requires that women do not go overboard in trying to look good.
Back in 2013, a dentist who fired a female employee because she was an “irresistible attraction”. The Iowa Supreme Court even reaffirmed its ruling that the dentist acted legally.
James Knight, the dentist, fired his assistant Melissa Nelson because he feared they would have an affair. The dentist’s wife, Jeanne, also promptly called for the woman’s termination after discovering text messages between her husband and Nelson.
As at the time, Nelson was two decades younger than the dentist and had maintained a good track record at the office over 10 years. Still, the dentist fired her for wearing “distracting” and “too tight and revealing” clothing to work.
Nelson who filed a discrimination suit ended up losing it in court for good at the state level. According to Iowa law, bosses can fire employees they see as threats to their marriages, even if the subordinates have not engaged in flirtatious or other inappropriate behaviour.
According to Ryan Foley at the Associated Press, “the court said such firings do not count as illegal sęx discrimination because they are motivated by feelings, not gender.”
“I think it is sending a message that men can do whatever they want in the workforce,” Nelson, a wife and mother of two young children, told ABC News.
She’s not the first woman to have faced this situation. In 2010, New York business banker Debrahlee Lorenzana claimed that she was fired because her male colleagues found her too physically distracting. Lorenzana sued for wrongful dismissal after her employer claimed the issue was her work performance.
That case raised questions about corporate dress code policies, but also about whether employees complaining about the appearance of their co-workers might be engaging in a special breed of sexual harassment.
In Nelson’s case, her boss chronically remarked on her attractiveness, reportedly once telling her that “If she saw his pants bulging, she would know her clothing was too revealing.”
On another occasion, Nelson claimed her employer sent her a text message to inquire about how frequent her orgasms are.
