Stefanie
In recent years, the up-rise of feminism and the fight for equality has really put some pressure on dress codes. Students in primary school have begun fighting back due to the unfairness of some clothing standards when comparing males and females. Workplace attire has also become more of a discussion as workers would much rather be confident and comfortable while working all day rather than worrying about dressing to please a higher-up boss they sometimes may never have even met.
One TikToker and Model by the name of Marie Dee recently went viral after she got sent home from work by an HR rep for her attire. The reason her video took off, however, wasn’t because of what she was wearing, but because the opinions of her two different HR reps, one a woman and one a man, were on completely opposite sides of the spectrum.
Her video went viral after she secretly recorded her on-site HR representative criticizing her outfit.
At the beginning of the video, Marie’s text reads that she’s being sent home again for her outfit. In the next frame, Marie shows off her outfit which includes a slim-fitting black dress that falls just above the knee. She shared that this time around the “HR rep approached her” and “she was going to ask her “why” she wasn’t allowed to wear what she had on.
The video ends with the two ladies discussing her outfit.
“I’m sorry, you still can’t wear that. It’s way too revealing and distracting,” the HR rep says off-camera.
“It’s distracting?” Marie asks.
“Very,” the rep replies very bluntly and Marie laughs in disbelief.
To test a theory on whether the lady rep was just being judgmental, Marie wore an outlandish green dress in another video, just to see if her male HR rep would react differently. She posted that video as well, and pretty much got the answer she was looking for.
In this post, Marie put on a bright green dress that went past her knees, along with a black blazer to “class” the outfit up. She went to work in the outfit and confronted the HR representative on site that day, who happened to be a man this time if her ensemble was work-appropriate.
Well, not only did he approve, but he asked her to do “a spin.” Yikes.
Commenters did not approve of this HR rep’s response in the slightest and had a few ironic speculations to make about the video.
A third video then surfaced, testing the judgment of the original lady HR rep again. This time, Marie was wearing a completely valid work dress, but HR’s response still wasn’t ideal…
Marie shared another video of herself at work when the HR woman was back in the office. In a quick fit-check, the model/TikToker was wearing a forest green dress that fell way below her knees. The dress also had a zipper at the center that allowed for minimal cleavage. To Marie’s surprise, she received a request from the HR rep asking her to come into her office since the news of her viral TikTok was brought to the CEO’s attention.
During their chat, Marie received an apology from the HR rep.
“I just got out of a meeting with the CEO and he wanted me to apologize to you because what you were wearing after the second review was appropriate,” the HR rep says off-camera as Marie smirks in response.
However, the HR rep proceeds to criticize Marie for her current outfit of choice.
“However, now that you’re here, can we please discuss what you’re wearing today?” the HR rep asks.
“What’s wrong with it?” Marie replies.
“It’s pushing it, like really pushing it,” the HR rep says.
“Like, specifically…?” Marie says before the HR interjects and says, “It’s a lot of boobs.” Oh no.
Based on her video series Marie Dee, like many other women everywhere, was being judged based on her body type.
From the first video alone, it was noticeable how the lady HR rep was scolding Marie because she was too “revealing” and “distracting,” however based on the second TikTok, the male rep had no problem whatsoever, and in fact, wanted to see more.
It’s fair to say that Marie was being analyzed based on her body type, which she literally can’t help. This has been an issue for women in the workplace since women started working in the workplace. It’s fair to get on to an employee if they decided to show up for their shift in lingerie or a bikini, but a modest form-fitting dress should not be an issue.