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14 Duke J. Gender L. & Pol'y 467 (2007)
The Many Faces of Darlene Jespersen

handle is hein.journals/djglp14 and id is 471 raw text is: THE MANY FACES OF DARLENE JESPERSEN MICHAEL SELMI* I. INTRODUCTION Darlene Jespersen worked as a bartender at the Harrah's Casino in the hardscrabble town of Reno, Nevada. Unlike its glitzier cousin Las Vegas, Reno is anything but glitzy, with a deteriorating downtown that is thirty years past its prime. Jespersen began her career at Harrah's-now the largest casino chain in the world-as a bar back, fetching ice and cutting lemons, and was quickly promoted to bartender. Twenty years later she remained a bartender in the Sports bar, creating the kind of long-term career that is all too rare these days. But the career Jespersen formed came to a halt when Harrah's demanded that she wear makeup. Jespersen was required to wear makeup at work, in addition to her uniform, as a part of a company initiative; but she refused to do so. Jespersen never wore makeup in or out of the workplace-she felt extremely uncomfortable doing so and also felt it was unnecessary to her job. In her own words: I had to become a sex object. And it was only because I am a woman .... The men who worked by my side did not have to conceal their faces. Harrah's considers them professional when they look like themselves. Although it had nothing to do with mixing drinks and handling customers, keeping my job became more and more about meeting Harrah's extreme and outdated idea of what a woman should look like.' When Jespersen held her ground, she was fired. So she sued Harrah's alleging that the company's makeup constituted gender discrimination in violation of Title VII.2 These rather straightforward facts demonstrate why this case has garnered so much attention. Here was a dedicated and, by all accounts, outstanding employee standing up for principle against a large corporate employer that imposed what appeared to be an unnecessary and-at least to Jespersen- demeaning policy. Jespersen sued without the help of a union because this particular casino was non-unionized, and she refused to budge. She refused to allow her job to turn her into something she did not want to be. * Visiting Professor of Law, Boston University Law School, Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School. 1. Darlene Jespersen, Op-Ed., Case Is About Civil Rights and Sex Bias, RENO GAZETrE-J., Feb. 5, 2004, at 11A. 2. See Jespersen v. Harrah's Operating Co., Inc., 444 F.3d 1104 (9th Cir. 2006) (en banc). The case is thoroughly discussed in Devon Carbado et al., The Jespersen Story: Makeup and Women at Work, in EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION STORIES (Joel Win. Friedman ed., 2006).

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