Bostock, the Crown Acts, and a Possible Right to Self-Expression in the Workplace

Employment at-will is the default rule in American law. In the absence of an employment contract, employers are generally free to discharge workers for any reason not barred by statute or public policy. Typically, an employee can be fired when an employer dislikes an employee\u27s self-expression that is not specifically protected by law. However, recent developments in employment discrimination law may provide the foundation for a burgeoning right to self-expression in the workplace. In its recent case Bostock v. Clayton County, the Supreme Court ruled sexual orientation discrimination and transgender discrimination necessarily involve sex discrimination under Title VII. The Court\u27s focus on expanding Title VII sex discrimination to address all employer practices that consider an individual employee\u27s sex, rather than limiting the statute\u27s coverage to employer practices that more generally discriminate against women because they are women or against men because they are men, broadens Title VII. In addition, the proposed federal Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act of 2021 and various similar laws enacted in states bar discrimination based on racialized hairstyles and hair texture. The CROWN Acts arguably expand race discrimination to include discrimination because of traits associated with race. Taken together, Bostock and the CROWN Acts can be interpreted to broaden Title VII and other employment discrimination statutes to redress employer practices that bar employee self-expression related to protected characteristics under those statutes

HairBrush for Immersive Data-Driven Hair Modeling

International audienceWhile hair is an essential component of virtual humans, it is also one of the most challenging digital assets to create. Existing automatic techniques lack the generality and flexibility to create rich hair variations, while manual authoring interfaces often require considerable artistic skills and efforts, especially for intricate 3D hair structures that can be difficult to navigate. We propose an interactive hair modeling system that can help create complex hairstyles in minutes or hours that would otherwise take much longer with existing tools. Modelers, including novice users, can focus on the overall hairstyles and local hair deformations, as our system intelligently suggests the desired hair parts. Our method combines the flexibility of manual authoring and the convenience of data-driven automation. Since hair contains intricate 3D structures such as buns, knots, and strands, they are inherently challenging to create using traditional 2D interfaces. Our system provides a new 3D hair author-ing interface for immersive interaction in virtual reality (VR). Users can draw high-level guide strips, from which our system predicts the most plausible hairstyles via a deep neural network trained from a professionally curated dataset. Each hairstyle in our dataset is composed of multiple variations, serving as blend-shapes to fit the user drawings via global blending and local deformation. The fitted hair models are visualized as interactive suggestions that the user can select, modify, or ignore. We conducted a user study to confirm that our system can significantly reduce manual labor while improve the output quality for modeling a variety of head and facial hairstyles that are challenging to create via existing techniques

THE FERTILITY FIGURINE PROBLEM: REINTERPRETING ANCIENT EGYPTIAN PADDLE DOLLS, FAIENCE, AND CERAMIC FEMALE FIGURINES

THE FERTILITY FIGURINE PROBLEM: REINTERPRETING ANCIENT EGYPTIAN PADDLE DOLLS, FAIENCE, AND CERAMIC FEMALE FIGURINE

An Exploration of the Identity and Career Development of African American Women in Higher Education Leadership: Does Hair Style Make a Difference?

African American women, a group that endures the intersectionality of being both a woman and an African American, have many obstacles in their path as they advance in their career. Despite the strides that have been made in America to improve things for women and people of color, the interwoven societal standards of beauty do not include African American women. This standard of beauty affects women in that no matter how intelligent they are, looks play an important part in their professional life. For African American women, hair is a large part of who they are and how others perceive them. The purpose of this study was to examine the lived career and identity development experiences of African American women in as they ascended the career ladder to reach top-level positions within higher education to examine what role hairstyle choice has played in their career progression. The research found that race played a role in the career development of African American women in higher education leadership. Though the role it played depended on the respondent. When it comes to the role that hairstyle choice plays in the upward advancement of African American women, it would seem it is not a very significant role. Though the women had plenty to say about their hair often being a topic of discussion in the work place and having some worries about how they present both their hair and overall outward look in an interview, most of the women stated that hair has not been a factor in their upward advancement. This study sought to learn how racial identity affects the career advancement of African American women in higher education and it succeeded in learning that the affect will differ depending on who you ask. Some of the participants to the study were very grounded in who they are as Black women and felt that their upbringing was influential in that. Lastly, this study sought to examine the intersectionality of career development, racial identity, and hairstyle choice on the career development of African American women in higher education leadership. This study found that the three are intertwined and that hairstyle choice and racial identity cannot be separated. Many of the women expressed that their hair was an extension of them, which aligns with previously mentioned literature. Overall their racial identity was both a hindrance and a positive influence on their upward advancement in higher education

The Influence of Colorism and Hair Texture Bias on the Professional and Social Lives of Black Women Student Affairs Professionals

The Influence of Colorism and Hair Texture Bias on the Professional and Social Lives of Black Women Student Affairs Professionals “If it was so honorable and glorious to be black, why was it the yellow-skinned people among us had so much prestige?” Zora Neal Hurston (1942) understood the privilege and oppression associated with colorism. “Colorism is the allocation of privilege and disadvantage according to the lightness or darkness of one’s skin” (Burke, 2008, p. 17). Colorism is the systematic preference for lighter skin tones over darker tones and stems from larger racial systems impacting education, income, marriageability, job placement, housing and social status for Black Americans (Hunter, 2005). The systematic privileging of light skin over dark skin advocates a hierarchy of skin tones, whereas lighter tones are positioned at the top, which impacts the roles Black Americans play within their own social group and in the larger US consciousness. Other physical characteristics, including facial features, weight, and hair texture also serve as gatekeepers; granting or denying access based on these features. In recent years, Black women have been encouraged to big chop and go natural, as to wear their natural hair curl pattern without chemicals and extensions. This is evidenced in the countless videos, memes, blogs, and vlogs via social media outlets, which may present challenges for Black women who wish to rid themselves of the mental enslavement Eurocentric beauty ideals have placed on their former crowns of glory, their hair, when entering professional arenas as well as social encounters. Incorporating Black hair politics allows for further exploration of the role aesthetics plays in the experiences of Black women socially and professionally. Skin tone bias has historical underpinnings but is still relevant in today’s society and is pervasive in the modern workplace, affecting Black Americans’ job mobility and professional experiences (Harrison, 2010), while simultaneously influencing the social lives of Black women. The purpose of the proposed study is to understand how colorism and hair texture bias influence the professional and social lives of Black women Student Affairs professional

By Any Other Name?: On Being Regarded as Black, and Why Title VII Should Apply Even If Lakisha and Jamal Are White

Applying theories concerning the social construction of race, this Article borrows from the definition of disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and the courts\u27 analyses of disability discrimination cases under the regarded as disabled provision of the ADA, which allows a plaintiff to bring a claim against an employer who regards the plaintiff as having an impairment that substantially limits a major life activity. Using the regarded as provision as a model, this Article proposes a new method for recognizing discrimination claims based on the use of proxies for race-even when those proxies have been used in a way that mistakenly identifies someone as belonging to a certain race. In other words, we recognize that it is not physical race but the presumptions of disability, or rather the constructed social meanings of race, that trigger both conscious and unconscious forms of discrimination. This Article argues that to redress discrimination in the workplace, courts must recognize employment discrimination claims where one is, for example, regarded as black, with all of the socially ascribed negative stereotypes of the group. Part I of this Article examines and exposes the ways in which race is socially constructed and analyzes several studies, including that of Bertrand and Mullainathan, to demonstrate how the construction of race by cultural and social factors can have damaging effects on the job market and in general society for those perceived as belonging to certain racial groups. Part II analyzes the current framework for evaluating individual disparate treatment cases based on race, describes how federal courts have mostly failed to recognize the way in which characteristics such as race are socially constructed and carry socially significant racial meanings, and details such courts\u27 general treatment of proxy discrimination claims brought under various antidiscrimination statutes. Part III of the Article argues that current case law ignores the fact that this form of decision-making based on proxies for race is a form of racial stereotyping and is actually disparate treatment based on race. It then borrows from a framework used in proving disability discrimination under the ADA to recommend a novel approach for courts to use in evaluating cases where a proxy for race was used to discriminate against a person-that is, where a plaintiff is regarded as belonging to a certain racial group, with all of the attendant socially ascribed negative stereotypes of the group. Finally, this Article concludes by explaining the importance of maintaining the effectiveness of Title VII by judicially interpreting such legislation in a manner that comports with the realities of racism and race discrimination