Teen quits job over issue of ‘revealing’ shorts

Who wears short shorts? Well, Sylva Stoel does, according to JCPenney, her employer.

Make that her former employer. Because when Sylva showed up at work last Friday wearing a sleeveless top, strappy sandals and red shorts she had purchased from JCPenney’s career department, she was told she revealed too much leg.

Rather than go home and change, 17-year-old Sylva quit her job as a sales clerk. She just went home. Once there she posted a photo of her wearing the sleeveless top, strappy sandals and red shorts on her Twitter account, @queenfeminist.

And social media went all social media-like on it. In other words, nuts.

Since then Sylva has been interviewed for People magazine. She’s been featured on the Huffington Post website site and on the “Today” show and “Good Morning America.”

National response: Praise and death threats

The Roosevelt High School senior has received accolades and death threats. She has been described as a heroine and a whiny, spoiled brat. She’s been praised for taking a stand and vilified for taking that stand.

What Sylva wants you to know, however, is that this isn’t a fight to the death against a corporate giant but a personal stance.

“It’s not like a me vs. JCPenney situation,” she said. “I don’t have a public grudge or feel victimized by JCPenney. I think it’s about a larger issue of misogyny and dress codes.”

For its part, JCPenney says its dress code is not sexist. “We do not comment on personnel matters, but JCPenney’s dress code policy for store associates does not allow the wearing of shorts of any length. This policy applies to both male and female associates.”

Sylva has seen the issue surface in high school. Boys are allowed to wear “super-tight muscle shirts” and shorts while girls in tank tops are sent for discipline. Actually, make that buxom girls in tank tops are sent for discipline.

“If a girl’s more busty and wears a tank top she gets sent to the office,” Sylva said. “A girl more flat-chested does not get that treatment. It’s body shaming.”

The issue of body shaming is something she takes seriously. That’s one reason why, about a year ago, she started her Twitter account, which has grown to more than 20,000 followers with more than 14,000 tweets.

She never expected that kind of following, Sylva said, but something about what she writes about “body positivity, girl power, and everything queer” and the photos she shares of herself in every situation with every possible hair color has resonated.

As did her tweet from last Friday, where she said, “Boss sent me home for wearing ‘too revealing’ shorts that I bought from the store I work at in the career section.”

Sylva had been employed before, at Swim America, where she wore a swimsuit while giving lessons, and at Papa Murphy’s, where she wore the pizza chain’s standard uniform. On Friday, two weeks into her job at JCPenney and 10 minutes into her shift, a manager named Jeff approached her.

“He came up to me and asked if anyone had told me about the dress codes during orientation. I said, yes, I didn’t know I was violating it though. He told me I needed to go home and change, the shorts were too revealing,” Sylva said.

She pointed out the shorts, costing about $15 with her employee discount, had come from that store’s own career section. The manager didn’t care. He asked how long it would take her to go home and change. Sylva said, “I don’t know. Probably the whole day” and left.

Dress code shames women, teen says

One issue with the shorts might be that at 6 feet, Sylva is taller than most women who wear them. On a smaller person, they would end closer to the knee. But the larger issue is a dress code that shames women, she said.

“Certain aspects of dress codes, no gang symbols or explicit imagery, I understand,” Sylva said. “But saying you can’t have an exposed bra strap at school or keeping people from showing their knees is fueled by the idea women can’t show parts of their body and still be taken seriously.”

Sylva is the second of what her father Scott Stoel calls three exceptional children. He and his wife, Rita, have followed public response to their daughter’s tweet with bemusement.

“I don’t read message board comments any more,” Stoel said. “I’m just surprised that an issue like this is sparking this kind of response. I guess it also points out that it is still a contentious issue. I would think that somebody not wanting to conform to a dress code they don’t agree with is a matter of personal choice, not an insult to an entire belief system.”

Stoel also has noticed that people read two or three paragraphs about Sylva and decide they have her life story and attitude figured out. Those are the ones who have called her spoiled rotten and worse.

“(Tuesday) my daughter got done talking to People magazine, which was a wonderful experience in her life, and I go, do you have any more interviews scheduled? She goes ‘No,’ I said, ‘Dishes, please,’ and she did the dishes,” he said.

“People are saying my parents must be so ashamed of me,” Sylva added. “I’m like you don’t even know, man.”

This might be Sylva’s 15 minutes of fleeting fame, or she might be able to affect people’s attitudes. She enjoys shining light on issues she cares about but will be just as happy when the anonymous, carping critics behind computer screens move on.

She also needs to find a new job.

“I’ve applied at a few places,” Sylva said. “I don’t know how that will be received, if people will recognize me and not want me.”