Facial Discrimination: Darlene Jespersen’s Fight Against the Barbie-fication of Bartenders

Lambda Legal took up Darlene Jespersen's case because restrictive, genderbased rules about personal appearance and deportment can pose particular burdens for anyone whose gender identity or expression varies from conventional stereotypes; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ("LGBT") people are disproportionately burdened by such rules.7 Many LGBT people cannot readily conform to conventional gender stereotypes. 8 For others, simply the process of "coming out" as LGBT or "queer" gives rise to a deep critique of the artificially restrictive gender stereotypes that pervade our modern lives and shape corporate marketing campaigns.