Ah, the irony runs thick in this story. Talk about getting a healthy dose of karma heaped right at your face.
New York City banker Debrahlee Lorenzana has been making national headlines over the past few weeks after she filed a sexual discrimination lawsuit against her former employer, Citigroup. She claimed the bank fired her because she was too attractive. Furthermore, she has alleged that her employer prohibited her from wearing clothing similar to the business attire worn by her female colleagues because it was distracting her male co-workers, who couldn’t help but gawk and stare at her body all day.
These are pretty strong allegations which if confirmed, would devastate Citigroup’s reputation. They should not be made lightly.
While I have not conducted a thorough investigation into these allegations and I will most definitely not be part of the jury should this case go to trial, I must say that based on all of the information about this case floating over the newswire, it seems that Lorenzana’s credibility is highly questionable at best. Please allow me to explain.
The latest ripple in this story came earlier this week, when a 2003 documentary from the Discovery Channel called “Plastic Surgery New York Style” surfaced. Take a wild guess who one of the stars of this program was. That’s right – it’s our own sexy banker, Debrahlee.
Yes, it seems that her sex appeal is not entirely au naturale. Lorenzana had considerable help attaining the hot body that, according to her, ultimately got her fired from her job at a New York Citibank branch. By the age of 26, she had already undergone four plastic surgery procedures:
- 2 breast augmentation surgeries
- Tummy tuck
- Liposuction
Of course, the fact that Lorenzana is a borderline plastic surgery addict does not in any way imply that her allegations regarding her treatment at Citibank are false. However, her comments and demeanor throughout this documentary do not paint a portrait of a serious professional who you would expect to find working at one of the largest banks in the country. It is this behavior that makes me wonder whether she exhibited similar unprofessionalism at work, which certainly might be legitimate grounds for dismissal.
Just so that there is no questioning my assessment of her professionalism, I would like to summarize some of the more colorful comments she sprinkled throughout this documentary:
When discussing her opinion on plastic surgery, she exuberantly declared on camera, “I love plastic surgery. I think it is the best thing that ever happened.” (editorial note: Spoken like a true plastic surgery addict. If you weren’t in love with plastic surgery, you wouldn’t have opted for four procedures before the age of 27.)
She made it clear that her ultimate goal was to construct the perfect body to reel in a trophy husband with Hollywood good looks. Her ideal “blue-eyed dreamboat” resembles George Clooney or Ben Affleck. She was confident that her newfound hotness would do the trick:
“He’ll be happy because I’ll be looking like a little Playboy Playmate…something between Pamela Anderson and Carmen Electra.” (editorial note: Do you really think that looking like a Playmate will help you land the perfect guy? Most likely, you will find someone with a porn fetish.)
The documentary films her walking through the grocery store with a friend, describing what her new DD breasts will look like after her second breast augmentation. Not one for modest aspirations, Lorenzana went straight to the fruit aisle, grabbed two huge melons, and held them up to her chest.
Of course, the best line out of her mouth was her declaration that she wanted to be “tits on a stick.” (editorial note: Will your “tits on a stick” come with a chocolate or raspberry coating?)
Recently, Lorenzana has told reporters, “I get harassed in the supermarket with my son just wearing sweatpants with my hair in a ponytail. I can’t help how I look.” (editorial note: Yes you can. You had four plastic surgery procedures performed to look like that. If you had stuck with the hand you were dealt, maybe people wouldn’t gawk at you as you buy cereal for your son.)
After all of her personal and professional turmoil, Lorenzana seems to have come to the conclusion that hotness may not be all she had originally imagined it was:
“If being less good-looking means being happy and finding love and not being sexually harassed and having a job where no one bothers you and no one questions you because of your looks, then definitely, I’d want that. I think of that every day.” (editorial note: Maybe there is hope for you yet, young plastic surgery addict. And to gain that self-awareness, it only cost you four major plastic surgery procedures, one lost job, a high profile sexual discrimination lawsuit, and public ridicule at the hands of the national media. I’ll bet therapy would have been a much cheaper, more private method to achieve your personal enlightenment.)
I suppose only time (and a jury of her peers) will tell us whether or not Citigroup acted inappropriately in firing her. Was it her plastic surgery accentuations which caused her career to take a tumble, or was it the utterly immature, unprofessional comments regularly spewing from her mouth that did her in? I’ll let you be the judge of that.
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