This Woman’s Boss Said Her Headscarf was ‘Unprofessional,’ So She Went to Work in Cosplay Instead

Never try to tell a cosplayer what to wear. They don’t like being told what to do, and they have more clothes than you could possibly imagine. That’s what one boss discovered recently after she tried to tell a woman that her perfectly office-appropriate outfit was unacceptable because “cultural head wraps” were not professional.

According to Bored Panda, Chicago woman and badass cosplayer June Rivas wrote on Facebook that her employee contract specifically says there is “no dress code. Just be clean and pressed.” But then she got reprimanded for showing up like this:

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That’s clean. That’s pressed. But her boss apparently did not like the scarf she was wearing around her head and said it was “unprofessional.”

Rivas says she filed a complaint against her boss for constantly harassing her about her hair and her headscarves, especially since there was no official employee dress code and Rivas was already making sure to be “clean and pressed.” After Rivas submitted her complaint, she says her boss responded by updating the employee handbook to create a new dress code that specifically banned “cultural head wraps” as well as things like straps, hats, sandals, cleavage, ponytails, and pigtails.

Banning “cultural head wraps” in an employee dress code sounds like a serious managerial overstep and a lawsuit waiting to happen. Rivas was pretty furious about it and filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. While the EEOC investigates Rivas’ complaint, she is still going to work and complying with the letter of her boss’ new dress code, which says no ponytails, no cleavage, and no “cultural head scarves.”

The boss’ new dress code did not, however, say Rivas could not show up wearing colored contact lenses, vinyl, or wigs, so Rivas cracked open her cosplay closet and started showing up in costume every damn day.

“Never piss off cosplaying Scorpios,” Rivas wrote on Facebook.

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The rules didn’t say no Spock ears either. This is perfectly logical.

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As long as she keeps her scarf around her shoulders and not on her head, this Padme Amidala costume is perfectly legal according to a very literal reading of her office’s new dress code.

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“I have come to work every day in an outfit that fits the guidelines,” Rivas wrote. And Rivas is a cosplayer. She can keep this going forever.

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This is not the way most management handbooks would recommend a person settle a disagreement at the office. But it sure is an effective way to show exactly how much respect she has for this new dress code.

(Photos via Facebook)

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