I sold my body (and nearly my soul) to Abercrombie

[ismnotwasm]

Not exactly feminist , and not exactly well- written, but a cautionary tale about working for a company that's full of shit.

This is the story of the year I discriminated against everybody.

♦◊♦

We have to begin somewhere, so let’s begin with bodies. Mine, yours, hers, theirs. All of the bodies that entered the store and left it. All of the bodies that could fit into our clothing and all of the bodies that didn’t.

“No ma’am, we don’t carry size 16 in those pants,” our cattiest assistant manager, a former cheerleader with a rail-thin physique, would gleefully inform potential customers.

“No ma’am, we don’t carry size 16 in those pants,” I soon found myself saying. First sadly, then automatically and cattily. First time as tragedy, second time as farce, amiright?

Those big bodies didn’t belong in “our” clothing, you see. I mean, look at this killer body–I bulged out of the A&F’s 100% cotton and 100% poorly ventilated “muscle-fit” t-shirts. Get out of here with that sloppy trash. ”We” were hot and “you” weren’t.

I don’t know if I ever totally bought that. Then again, I can’t reproduce my interior thoughts from a decade ago with a high degree of accuracy. Did I drink the Kool-Aid? Was I “collegiate” and “quality” to the core of my being? My terrible performance as a manager suggests that it didn’t take, but, then again, I was also something of an arrogant 20-year-old asshole who took inordinate pride in his ripped 220-pound physique.

Or I was until the weekly meetings started.

http://www.salon.com/2014/05/05/i_sold_my_body_and_nearly_my_soul_to_abercrombie_partner/