4 ms·

> where putting a picture on your résumé is more or less illegal How does it work for models and actors?

• pbronez 5y ago
  That’s actually a really interesting question. Models and actors usually explicitly include a headshot. I’ve never heard that putting a picture on a resume was a legal problem for an applicant. Employers have a the burden of running a fair hiring process. Some firms even remove race and gender signifiers from resumes before the initial hiring manager screen. It was a big deal when they stopped making hotness a requirement for airline stewards, and for most jobs it’s totally illegal to require a particular ethnicity, but for performing arts they explicitly hire people for physical appearance. What’s the difference, legally? A few possibilities: - performing arts (film, stage) are artistic expression, and thus protected by the first amendment. (But then why is the physical appearance of an airline steward not free speech of a brand’s image?) - appearance is “inherent” to acting (but I’m sure people have argued that whiteness is inherent to staffing all kinds of things, and that’s not tolerated) - actors are rarely employees, but instead sign independent contracts with short lived, project specific LLCs. Thus “casting” is not “recruiting” and actors don’t have traditional employment protections. (Most film jobs work this way though - is it permissible to apply appearance standards to the Key Grip?)