Row Over Petite Ad - Wednesday 06, April-2005
WANTED: Waitresses between sizes zero and six for a Japanese restaurant.
Classic Japanese and Thai restaurant, Zen, located at the Crane Resort, St Philip, is recruiting petite women as waitresses at the restaurant.
In an advertisement on Page 9 of yesterday’s DAILY NATION, Zen advertised for a waitress who “must comfortably fit in a traditional, Japanese Kimono (United States dress size zero to six), [with] minimum fifth form education, no experience necessary, will train the right candidates”.
However, questions have been raised as to if it was discriminatory to specify that prospective employees be a certain size.
Attorney-at-law Ralph Thorne said it was, though it’s not unlawful.
“It is not unlawful because there is no anti-discriminatory legislation in Barbados,” he told the DAILY NATION.
“And even if there was legislation, it probably would not cover dress size. It would more than likely cover age, race and gender.”
Director of the Bureau of Gender Affairs, Sheila Stuart, was outraged when the advertisement was brought to her attention.
“This is outright discrimination. One cannot discriminate [on the basis of] dress size, looks and things like that, and this really should stop,” she said.
“However, you find that people get away with this through the selection process and this leads to stereotyping. This is seen in other areas too, where women in certain professions dress in a way to attract male customers.
“Like gas attendants for instance. [They] wear tight skirts above the knee and this is wrong. The Labour Department should point this out to employers . . . We have to be careful about that.”
Repeated efforts to speak with human resources manager at the Crane Resort, Sean Alleyne, went unanswered.
However, a source within the department said they did not see their request for petite women as discriminatory.
According to that officer, the traditional Japanese outfit, the kimono, was “small and slim and could only fit petite people”.
I aint see wha all de argument about. A bony girl cant enter the miss big n beautiful so what is the point? I just want to know if they trying to say that Japanese women don't get past size 6?
10 comments:
As you would say JDid....CHUPSE!
BTW...me never know seh dem had a size ZERO in dresses?? Dr. D.
Boye, ,bare foolishness gine on in B'dos nowadays....chupssssse!!!!
Bajan wimmen ley muh rephase dat West Indian wimmen ein make up like dem lil Japanesse wimmen, wid no hips, or ass...and size zero onlee exist in Latin America and de US....and wha bout de top part..wha lots of WI wimmen well busty up dey, so how dem gine fit nicely in a KIMO.....boycott fuh trute.
Hmmm... hard to say where I am on this one... see, some jobs just require slim people... Imaging you hire a big fat woman as a gym instructor, how that going to look? It wouldn't werk.... A big fat stripper would only appeal to a small subset of the stripper watching population, yuh simi?
Now, waitresses... well, I would think that waitresses woud come in all sizes still... Can't really see why they would need them to be so small, especially if they expect them to lift up heavy food trays and all...
Dunno... Tell you what! All the fat people should boycott that place. Doh apply for no jobs there, thats my advice...
I representing de big gals, Dem want a big bubby slap for being strepid.
Chinese/Japanese people are mostly petite.Discriminatory,yes but unless they break some laws I don't know if the authorities can do anything
I saw that in the paper yesterday. But like the attorney said, Barbados doesn't have any anti-discrimination laws, so wha yuh could do? Plus, they have ads in the paper all the time where the advertisers specify that they want women between a certain age, or men only, or men above a certain age or whatever. This situation isn't really so different. Not that I agree with discrimination in employment advertising and selection, but it isn't like this is something new and startling in Barbados.
Fat people in Japan don't serve....they sumo.
i don't see anythign wrong with asking for petite women. it's NOT discriminatory if the required job calls for a specific type or body shape.
look at runway modelling for example. you have to be between a certain height (and the skinnier, the better). BBW modelling is for those women of healthy weight, but again, they have to meet the height requirements.
yes, there are some fat japanese women too, but typically women in that part of the world tend to be smaller, if not almost miniscule. try shopping in a store that imports all of its clothes from hong kong or tokyo! at home i wear a size 25 jean. in the east, i wear a size 30.
anyhoo... while it may ruffle a few feathers, they're not actually committing a crime.
and how many of us refuse to date a guy/girl because they're too chubby, too skinny, too short, or too white? LOL
admit it y'all! we're all hypocrites.
yawn!!! where will it all end?
@Dr D - yes star zero dresses for them maga maga maga gal
@starfoxx - is juss the company cheap an aint wanta get no big kimono
@camp - boycott? suppose a fella say he only want hire wumen wid big breasteses ya wud boycott too?
@mad bull - true thing
@tracey - ha ha ha big bubby slap. dat i would have to see
@abeni - yea well I agree aint really nothing that can be done about it. just doan eat there if ya have a problem
@titilayo - yep thats what i say. ya cant have small girls in the big n beautiful so if ya cant have fat girls at the japaenes resturant is the same ting
@ozzman - so now all we need is an add saying we want sumos but no bony fellas cant apply cause the lil diaper thing dem duz wear gotta fit a size 50 waist
@marlo - i gine beg to disagree a bit. It is discriminitory to some extent because there is no hard n fast rule that says japanese waitresses got to be between 0 and 6. in dis case them basically saying in all a big big japan there aint one resturant wid a fat wuman as a waitress. ya expect me ta believe dat. whapart all de fat wumen dem in de back cooking? naa star is juss the owners get sum lil cheap kimonos 2 fa 1 and dem aint wanta go outta de way ta get nun no bigga.
but on the oher hand just cause it discriminatory doan mean it illegal cause as you point out modelling clearly discriminates but a so it so, we live wid it.
Post a Comment