J.C. Penney employee Sylva Stoel sent home for 'too revealing' shorts she bought at work

A J.C Penney employee in South Dakota is questioning the company's dress code after she claims she was sent home from work for wearing shorts that were "too revealing." However, she says she bought the shorts in the store's career section!

Sylva Stoel, 17, posted a photo of herself to Twitter wearing the red shorts she says got her sent home to change.  According to People.com,  Stoel argued that the shorts that she wore with a sleeveless blue button-down shirt were appropriate for the workplace because the store marketed them that way. 

Stoel says the clothing standards unfairly target women.

Photo credit: Sylva Stoel via Twitter

Stoel said the store's manager never mentioned shorts while discussing the dress code at the job's orientation, only mentioning that denim, t-shirts, spaghetti-strap tank tops and 'too short' skirts were banned

 A JCPenney's spokesman told People Magazine that the dress code policy prohibits store associates, both male and female, from wearing shorts 'of any length'

"I didn't expect it to happen, but I wasn't surprised – there's been a lot of talk about unfair dress codes affecting women, and it was in the back of my mind that this could happen," Stoel tells PEOPLE.

While Stoel says that when she was hired she was aware of some dress restrictions, like no tank tops, denim, or T-shirts, a "no shorts" policy was never mentioned. 

In a statement, the company denies that its dress code is discriminatory:

JCPenney's dress code policy for store associates prohibits the wearing of shorts of any length. This policy applies to both male and female associates. We have reached out to the associate who blogged about this policy, but she has not retued our telephone calls thus far.
 
Stoel says she quit her job after the incident.