JCPenney Employee Sent Home for Wearing Too Short Shorts

A JCPenney employee, who wore a pair of shorts purchased from the career section of the store, was sent home by her boss for wearing the “too revealing” item. 

Sylva Stoel, a blogger and self-described “intersectional feminist using the web to dish out body positivity, girl power, and everything queer,” was asked how long it would take her to go home and change, to which she replied, “idk probably the whole day I’m not coming back.” She also noted that in the past, co-workers had worn jeans and undershirts without complaint from higher-ups.

Stoel, who tweets from the handle @queerfeminist, shared her story with her nearly 20,000 followers, raising issue with not just her own isolated incident, but the larger problem of institutional dress codes. She cites what she believes to be important rules of professional dress—ban gang attire, explicit imagery, and pajamas—but calls into question everything that dictates what women can and can’t wear: from shorts and bra straps to sneakers and over-sized clothes, alleging that most rules of dress “shame women” and “target girls differently.” “The rules were made by people in power. If the rule only benefits the [people] currently in power and not all of society, you can break the rule,” she writes. “"Rules are rules" but when the rule is unfair we must question WHY it’s a rule, WHO made the rule, and then BREAK THAT RULE.”

“I think the most detrimental thing about dress codes that specifically target women is that they are often defending the idea that women must dress in a way that doesn’t provoke or distract men,” Stoel told Mic. “This reasoning impossibly casts the woman as both the offender and the victim when they have done nothing wrong." 

Yahoo Style has reached out to JCPenney for comment but has yet to hear back.

More from Yahoo Style:
At Wimbledon, Men—Not Women—Get the Fashion Police Treatment
Did This Girl Deserve Detention for Wearing a Maxi Dress to School?
Cannes Steps Into Trouble With High-Heels Dress Code