Debrahlee Lorenzana (PICTURES) Fired for Being Too Sexy?

By: Kevin Hayes
Topics: Daily Blotter

Debrahlee Lorenzana

(Credit: Saswat Pattanayak)

NEW YORK (CBS) Debrahlee Lorenzana claims in court papers that she was forced out of her Manhattan Citibank job because she was too good looking, reports the New York Post.

PICTURES: Debralee Lorenzana: Too Sexy for Bank?

According to the paper, Lorenzana says she was subject to "improper comments" and was reprimanded for dressing sexily - when all she was doing was dressing professionally.

In this anything-but-typical sex harassment case, first reported by The Village Voice, when Lorenzana complained about the treatment, her court papers say she was stripped of some of her duties, before Citibank approved her request for a transfer to a new branch. The New York Post says she claims her situation did not improve with the transfer, and she was reprimanded, unfairly according to her, for not signing up enough new customers.

She was fired, according to the Post, in August 2009, and her gender discrimination lawsuit is currently in private arbitration. The paper says that a statement released by Citibank describes the suit as being "without merit."

37 Photos

Debrahlee Lorenzana: Too Sexy for Bank?

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by hearmeinsilence April 26, 2011 3:53 PM EDT: Allowing ourselves to ignorantly refute and deny the existence of inequality in the workplace will not only bring us to progressively tear the very fabric of society as we know it, but to subtly plant further seeds of conflict that will surely plague our future generations. We cannot truly judge a particular group of people based on their public personas and how they appear to present themselves to the rest of society, merely because we don't know what the true motives are behind their very actions. Doing so would cause us to unjustifiably accept people's first impressions as their only way to obtain their desired reputation, a notion that sadly undermines the true character of myriad incredible people who are often misunderstood by the rest of society.

Debrahlee Lorenzana has sadly become one of these victims of a misinformed society that "marks" certain of its constituents, as women in the workplace have become increasingly exploited by not only the banking industry but by countless other professions. Interpreting every single deliberate decision and action of a woman in society, without hesitation or restraint, as representative of certain aspects of their character, intimates almost immediately that major gaps of equality are still readily prevalent in today's world. Just the fact that Lorenzana was even considered for being fired as a result of her physical appearance or attractiveness shows that the very same double-standards that both Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton condemned in their Declaration of Sentiments, long ago at the unprecedented Seneca Falls Convention in 1948, are just as rampant today in 2011 as they were 60 years ago.

It's possible to argue that discrimination is a natural part of our capitalist democracy. Among life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the freedom of thought and expression is a right we are all guaranteed as citizens of our world's greatest experiment of democracy. Many firmly believe that such an issue isn't in our complete control and that gender inequality is allegedly only the fault of the victims themselves, as they have put themselves in peculiar positions naturally condemned by society as a result of imprudent decisions; in our case, dressing in a particular manner and presenting oneself in a deliberate way before others.

We cannot acquiesce and allow such things to happen, though. We cannot just sit back and allow people like Lorenzana to be fired without a fair fight to acquire substantial evidence of a true wrongdoing on her part. Doing so would bring us to relinquish hundreds of years of progress and disparage millions of lives lost nobly on the battlefield, all dedicated to the salvation of a true democracy, for all people, for all time. If we merely criticize people in situations congruous to Lorenzana without taking a second to recollect the true facts surrounding the incident, or even do nothing and ignore it as a potentially isolated incident, we are just as guilty as the flagrant perpetrators who do much worse- we are just as guilty as the chief executive of one of Japan's largest companies who refused to count women on the books as a result of the companies structurally emotionally pitted system again women, and perhaps even more responsible than the countless sex offenders who have made national news for not being convicted for raping and harassing countless young girls at Yale University.; Reply to this comment


by cerulean89 July 28, 2010 9:17 AM EDT: This woman really did bring this on herself. She said in another interview for Plastic Surgery in NYC that she wants to be "**** on a stick" and to look like a playboy model. She said that she's striving to marry rich celebrities like Ben Affleck, George Clooney and PDiddy. She probably spends at least an hour a day getting ready for work, and here she is, claiming that it's not her fault that she's so sexy. And if it happened all her life like she said, why did she further enhance herself; did she think she would get less attention for looking even better? She knew exactly what she was doing.

There are so many more beautiful women in banking that are holding onto their jobs just fine (even she herself mentioned that other women dressed more provocatively but still had their jobs). I think this woman is at best attractive (even after four plastic surgery procedures) but by no means too hot for men to control themselves. That's absurd. Overall she seems like a manipulative attention ***** whose 15 minutes of fame will hopefully be over soon.; Reply to this comment


by WayneLLewis July 26, 2010 12:32 AM EDT: I down care how she performed, if they would fire her, they obviously have not smart enough to handle my money. I cancelled my account and moved over to BOA. I recommend she apply over there.; Reply to this comment


by dcardinale July 11, 2010 1:42 PM EDT: it would be interesting to find out if her allegedly poor job performance was really a polite no to a date from a higher up and the rejection led to her dismissal. Many very attractive women are accused falsely by men with a lack of character whose egos are so intimidated by an attractive intelligent woman, that they resort to false accusations. Sad.; Reply to this comment


by careifucan June 29, 2010 3:41 PM EDT: Come on people, she wanted an excuse for a law suit and found one. If I dressed like that I would expect attention, but does she really have a brain? Couldn't find any mention of education, previous job experience etc... We have a dress code at my place of employment and all males and females abide by it to not have a problem with distractions from what we are here to get paid for. Anyway thier not real guys!!; Reply to this comment


by 14maurice June 28, 2010 11:24 PM EDT: Get over yourself. They respect themself to much to keep a hooch around. Never know what you will catch.; Reply to this comment


by johnfh65 June 24, 2010 7:51 AM EDT: This is ridiculous. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the jerkoffs who fired this woman made passes at her, were rejected and couldn't handle the blows to their egos. All this crap about 'professionalism' is a disguise for insecurity such stuffed-shirt losers have in the presence of a beautiful, confident woman. You'd think the company would have been happy to have her, as such companies use the allure of such a woman to draw in more business. Big pharma is the worst, sending forth its ****** otherwise known as sales reps to push their drugs on everyone. Ms. Lorenzana probably didn't dress risque enough for them...; Reply to this comment


by Beverly_Prather June 22, 2010 6:41 PM EDT: Serious violent felony rape in the workplace, is a crime, but in five years, I can not make anyone enforce the law.

I do not look like Ms. Lorenzana, I suspect SHE will do just fine in HER lawsuit.

I am poor, "contract labor", I can not make anyone enforce federal statute law. When the boss likes to rape the office help, he should go to prison. That is my thinking on that matter, even if he rapes the "contract labor".

I beg everyone, put one serial rapist in prison. He rapes women, RIGHT OUT IN PUBLIC, in the workplace.

Please, before he rapes more "contract labor" , BEFORE he rapes more women and the federal court at Philadelphia tells her that it is "no crime alleged".

Surely someone thinks serious violent felony rape is a crime. It was not Barack Obama and Joe Biden. VAWA - Sealed felony rape does not count, but the millions the corporations pay the government does. Please, someone put that one rapist in prison, BEFORE , he rapes again. The federal court at Philadelphia has been allowing workplace rape, for many years.

I can be reached at beverlyprather1@verizon.net; Reply to this comment