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Is She Too Sexy for This Bank?
By
John Del Signore
Published Jun 2, 2010
Modified Jun 2, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jun 2, 2010
Modified Jun 2, 2010
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This week's Village Voice cover story is about a 33-year-old single mom who says she was fired from Citigroup because the guys in the office couldn't handle her hot bod. To accompany the article, the online version features a whopping twenty photos illustrating just makes Debbie Lorenzana such a distracting co-worker. (She doesn't even work in our office and we're having a hard time getting anything done today.) After careful deliberation, we've whittled the photos down to the top seven shots, for reference purposes only and so not as part of some shameless attempt to drive up page views like the Voice.
Lorenzana says she was fired from Citigroup last summer after finally getting transferred out of the department where her troubles started. Her job title was business banker, providing services to small businesses. After some time on the job, the managers called her into a meeting and, according to her account, told her, " 'Your pants are too tight.' I said, 'I'm sorry, my pants are not too tight! If you want to talk about inappropriate clothes, go downstairs and look at some of the tellers! Some tellers would wear their pants so tight, it was like they had a permanent wedgie.' " But because she signed a mandatory-arbitration clause as a condition of her employment, her harassment case will be settled by an arbitrator, not a judge.
Her suit claims that, "as a result of her tall stature, coupled with her curvaceous figure, she should not wear classic high-heeled business shoes, as this purportedly drew attention to her body in a manner that was upsetting to her easily distracted male managers." Lorenzana's lawyer Jack Turner tells the Voice, "It's like saying that we can't think anymore 'cause our penises are standing up—and we cannot think about you except in a sexual manner—and we can't look at you without wanting to have sexual intercourse with you. And it's up to you, gorgeous woman, to lessen your appeal so that we can focus!" Exactly! In fact, if Lorenzana had simply been courteous enough to work in a Burka, maybe Citigroup wouldn't have lost all those billions of dollars last year.
Tagged
bank
citigroup
Debbie Lorenzana
sexual harassment
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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