new thread
Glad to see this forum exists, I need a place to vent and this may be the only place to do it. I'm a first year law student, and I've been wearing my hair long since I was a teenager. One of my professors has a sense of humor, so for my first legal research project she assigned me a line of cases dealing with employment discrimination based on hair length. I expected to find perhaps some initial reluctance on the part of U.S. courts to recognize sex discrimination claims by men concerning hair length, and sure enough when these cases first started popping up in the early 70's only a few judges lent them any weight.
What I didn't expect to find however, was that as recently as this year an Appeals Court in Florida ruled against a claim of sex discrimination based on male hair length. They said, in effect, that it is legally permissible for an employer to allow female employees to wear their hair long, but not male employees. Accordingly, the EEOC, which had previously been in support of such actions, ordered their offices to officially close any pending claims of this nature.
In other words, in America in 1998, a man can be fired, or simply not hired at all, for having long hair, while a woman who does the same job labors under no such restriction. Does this strike anyone else as plainly unfair, if not simply unjust as a matter of principle?
Personally, it ticks me off. I'd love to hear what the rest of you think.
-By the way, the employer in the case was Blockbuster Video, if you're interested. If there are any legal-types out there I can give you the citation.
Maybe you could be our champion in this area and take it
to higher courts. Somebody has to.
HI --
Courts often follow the ethos of the congress. Those who want individual liberties had better vote Democrat. The Republicans claim that they don't want big government, but what they mean is that they don''t want safety regulartions or ecological regulations for the benefit of the public. They are always ready to look into your bedroom and will not support your individual right to self expression and goevernment is never to big for their intrusions. Make sure you are practicing to say pledge allegiance to the flag.
Canis
Hold on there... I don't think this is the place to be spouting pro-party rhetoric. This is a forum for men and women who like long hair on guys, nothing more. While I'm not against exploring the differences between religions, political preferences, etc., deliberately insulting another's decisions is bad form. Please stick to the issue of hair, which is why we're here.
BTW for any of you who have missed my site, I apologize -- I went through several months fighting with the hosts of my site to get it back up and running. Stupid fools even reformatted the HDD so I had to re-upload everything. But it's up and running now. Thanks!
I would like the citation. I know this to be true. Recently, I asked my office manager at my law firm what was their take on males with long hair and they said that they wouldn't hire them. I told her that I found this outrageous and absurd in today's society. I believe if we can create all these new "space age" gadgets and evolve in the areas of technology and medicine, I believe society could do more evolving in the area of mental and spiritual beliefs, but we haven't. In the 80s a man sued a nightclub because he found the idea of allowing ladies into the club for free on a certain night along with serving them cheaper drinks unfair. He won. Ladies Night in that regard was abolished. I figure if a lawsuit of this nature could go through our system, I feel that the gentleman with the long hair should pursue an appeal of the ruling in the Blockbuster case. Also, if there are women suing against the "all male" rule (i.e., to be admitted to "all male" clubs, male-dominated jobs, etc.), I believe that a man needs to fight this all the way to the top. This is blatant sexual discrimination. They definitely have my support.
Chaeya
part of the issue is that there is no political hay to be made over what amounts to a cause for a few white males. in my experience, guys with long hair tend to be in their late teens & early twenties, stoned out of their minds & generally are bad 'embassadors' for the cause of long hair. championing their rights to wear their hair long will not serve to further the ambitions of judges & lawmakers... further, their general bad example of behavior will only dignify the accepted denial of employment and 'guilty until proven innocent' practice of pre-employment drug testing.
what we need is for more responsible, enlightened men to grow their hair out and demonstrate that having long hair is not a sign of drug use or immaturity. electing more longhairs as judges & to political office can't hurt either. the contributors to this board seem to be positive examples of what a person should be- regardless of hair length. we need to educate by positive example- as any verbal message will be lost on those who've already 'made up their mind'.
(of course, it's easy for me to say all this- i'm holding down 2 jobs & hair is not an issue)
Isn't this a Catch-22, though? As a 39-year-old with long hair, honestly, one of the main reasons I'm *able* to keep my hair at a length I find personally comfortable is that I'm a "housespouse." For quite some time, when I really needed the income and all, I managed to live with some very nasty styles. Now, only my SO could "fire" me and I don't believe that hair length in and of itself is a justifiable reason for divorce.
I would *agree* that this would become a non-issue if the social norm were to change for males (and if you keep your hair in a ponytail all the time, *some* employers might allow it, at least in an employee with a good work history. but many would also probably try to make use of it to get rid of someone in a downturn.)
And of course, there's a lot of variation between professions. Hair length seems to be much more an issue in the old-style "professions" such as lawyering, doctoring and accounting.
Very true about how different professions accept hair length differently. If you have long hair, you are likely to be a bit of a non-conformist anyway, so looking for a non-traditional job could be just the right thing for you. The obvious jobs are graphics and computers, or most any job where you are self-employed. (Easy for me to say -- I'm a self-employed computer guy.)
But what if you want to be a lawyer? Do you have to find a different line of work that accepts long hair? Maybe look for a legal firm that is more accepting of longhairs? Set up your practice on the Internet?
Regardless of your line of work, many other people have posted here how important it is to do really well in your work -- make yourself stand out! Then if your employer fires your for long hair, some other employer would be glad to hire you.
BTW, I have been boycotting Blockbuster Video since that court case.
HI -
If Blockbusters is discriminating, let's have their e-mail address. I will boycot them, and so will my dog. Let' shjw them.
Canis.
My husband had long hair through his late 20's. In his job search for an income higher than that of factory worker, he found he could not get hired with the hair. In search of the mighty dollar he succumbed to the corporate rule: no long-haried hippy types need apply. Self employment would seem like a logical alternative to having your hair and eating cake too, but that opens another can of worms.
Now in his 40's, he has decided to "test the corporate rules" by letting it grow. We will see how long the hair can get before he faces the dreaded ultimatum: long hair or you job. Perhaps he can find decent paying work and keep the hair? I doubt it, but I am hoping for a miracle.
I thought the 60's generation's coming of age would have eased the restrictions in matters like these. It hasn't. The former 'long-haired hippy types' are now in positions of power. For some unknown reason, they ended up conforming to the very "establishment" they despised.
Pandora, the miracle might just be gray hair. I found that the pressure dropped off considerably once gray hair began to appear. Lots of the hair pressure seems to be a father-son game, and the fantasy just doesn't play well with a gray haired dude. ((grin))
If we can put a man on the moon, we should learn to be more accepting of men with long hair? Huh? I'm sorry, I don't get the analogy between technological advances and peoples' ability to accept long hair on men.
Meaning, I find it interesting that we advanced so much materially, yet society as a whole does little work on advancing spiritually. If a great mind can create a computer chip - can not that great mind do the work to better him or herself.
Chaeya
I think there are two way to go in this case, either try one of many ways to create more laws, or recommend what are the best options for the longhairs you should represent in these court cases.
The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) may consider an appeal if the video store grooming codes are interpreted as disproportionate discrimination (known as "disparate impact" in legal jargon) against a protected minority groups, such as American Indians. If this was left out of the case study, maybe it could be used as a grounds for appeal.
If the people wanting long hair were fired for getting together and asking that grooming codes be changed, then laws protecting free speech and organized labor may apply.
If video store is the only video store in town, maybe laws against monopolization could apply, laws such as the Sherman Antitrust Act. One video store controlling nearly all the video stores in town could be considered a virtual monopoly and restraint on free trade. Some of the video copyright protections may be interpreted as anti-competitive. Monopoly prevents the long hairs from opening their own video rental store.
Maybe the video store could be held liable for damages to new employees if they failed to notify new employees of the grooming codes when they were hired. A new employee could have quit a job to start work at Blockbuster Video, only to be fired because of the grooming standard and remain unemployed for months afterward.
Rather than create more laws that confuse everyone and make the cost of renting videos more expensive, explore other options the long hair can take. They need to know if free speech allows them to picket the video stores, organize boycotts, write press releases, write the shareholder, suppliers and customers of the video store. Maybe they could get the video store to help them find another job or open a video store of their own if they don't run into too much legal red tape.
I think you bring up some good points. Personally I'm not a big fan of making more laws as a solution to every problem. My original shock about the court's holding was that it felt that the anti-gender discrimination laws already in existence didn't apply. It seemed like the laws we already had were sufficient, and several courts had found that in the past. Beyond that, I think you're right, a new law just to protect long hair on men isn't much of an idea.
As far as an appeal, I don't know about the disparate impact idea, I hadn't thought of that, but strictly on the facts of the case as it was argued, I doubt there will be a further appeal. It was a Circuit Court decision, so if I have my civ. pro. straight, the only remaining appeal is to the U.S. Supreme Court, and I can't see them granting certiorari for a case about hair.
The corporation I work for is particularly sensitive to harassment involving employees, including senior management. Anything which would create a "hostile" environment is frowned upon and met with disciplinary action. Neatness and good work habits count, not hair length. As a member of senior management myself, I let my already long hair start to grow out a year ago. It is now mid-shoulder length and I wear it in a pony-tail. I have not had as much as a second glance by even executive staff. Judge on performance, not personal
appearance.
I just did a speach on long hair discrimination (about 3 hours before posting this) for my speach class. Some companies wont even hair you if you have long hair... like Fry's Electronics When i applied to them they said they would hire me if i would cut my hair to 2 inches long... this was unacceptible so i wasnt hired.. ohhh well i guess then they will not get a person who knows something about computers unlike most of there associates...(i run my own small repair thingy for computers and networks, 10+ years of experince with many things....) agian ohhh well....
Fun anti-anti-descrimination laws :)