Sephora Tells Trans Woman Voice Is 'Too Masculine' To Be Female: VIDEO

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        Trans Woman Furious After Sephora Worker Says Her Voice Is 'Too Masculine' For Her To Be A Woman
    

        Scott Olson/Getty Images
    
By Eric SpringJul 12, 2021
Eric Spring
Eric Spring lives in New York City. He has poor vision and cooks a good egg. Most of his money is spent on live music and produce. He usually wears plain, solid color sweatshirts without hoods because he assumes loud patterns make people expect something big. Typically, he'll bypass a handshake and go straight for the hug.
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A trans woman recently took to Twitter to recount her unsettling experience attempting to receive phone-based customer service assistance from the beauty product retailer Sephora. 
In the multi-part thread, she explained the Sephora customer service representative misgendered her twice—and one of those times came after an uncomfortable clarification. 
The woman uses the handle @hypersonicorn and is listed as "Dana" on Twitter.
She shared how she listed her proper gender identity in her online account, but everything went off the rails once a real-life conversation with a customer service rep happened.
All because of gender stereotypes.
Had to out myself as trans to @Sephora customer service because my account says I'm female and they concluded that my voice was too masculine, therefore I must be lying. \n\n@Sephora if you care for trans people for more than just their money, train your people to do better.\n\n1/
 — Dana (@Dana)
        1625601342

The details, I"m so mad rn:\n\nWhen she asked for my name and I told her and she said "YOUR name is Dana?". Yes bitch, did I stutter? \n\nThen I told her my problem, that the order I just received was missing items (srsly yall need better quality control)\n\n2/
 — Dana (@Dana)
        1625601342
The representative's skepticism and disbelief about Dana's gender forced her to explain that she was transgender.
After that she said the account owner is listed as female and to protect the account owner she could not help me with my request. Srsly thought she was about to hangup on me at this point.\n\nI told her that I'm female, I'm transgender and yes I know I have a deep voice\n\n3/
 — Dana (@Dana)
        1625601342

She did apologize and helped me with my issue. Then ends the call with "have a nice day sir" \n\nWTF!! I'm so mad. I'm not sure if I will ever shop there again. There has to be another beauty company that is actually trans inclusive and not just pandering for our money\n\n4/
 — Dana (@Dana)
        1625601342
As the thread continued, Dana zoomed out and addressed the broader, structural flaws leading to what she was forced to deal with.
Retail accounts like this shouldn't even have gender. If you want to target advertise to me then just use my order history,  that is way more effective anyways\n\nI can't even see on my account where my gender is. Did you just assume based on my name? Which is gender neutral btw.
 — Dana (@Dana)
        1625601343

Also if you're refusing to help me (for security reasons) because you assumed my gender based on my voice and it doesn't match what you got on your screen, then congratulations your security can be defeated by half of humanity.\n\n6/
 — Dana (@Dana)
        1625601343
Dana then made an important distinction that plenty of other brands have been called out for too.
@hypersonicorn/Twitter
Toward the end of her thread, Dana explained she was able to speak with Sephora about the issue.
I also asked about just removing gender from profiles they essentially said they would take it under consideration and have been asked about that before. Honestly that is probably the most a person at that level could do. But it does leave much to be desired.
 — Dana (@Dana)
        1625701789
Her tweets left plenty of people outraged right along with her.
I'm so sorry. Similarly, I had heard @Sephora  was supposedly trans friendly only to be humiliated, misgendered even after correcting them, and getting the coldest customer service I've ever received in my life during my first visit. \n\nThey're inclusion is all performative BS.
 — Zoey // \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f (@Zoey // \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f)
        1625627588

I've had this happen before and it's infuriating\nAnd the "Thank you for your patience sir" at the end is just salt and lemon juice, with some chilli powder in my wounds
 — Foxy \u0394\u0394\u0394 (@Foxy \u0394\u0394\u0394)
        1625664932

I'm wondering just why in the blue hell should it even matter to any company if someone is male or female. This is so beyond unacceptable.
 — Das Enforcer Wolf (@Das Enforcer Wolf)
        1625617175

Like i worked in a call center for SIX YEARS it's not hard to call someone by the name/pronouns on their account unless otherwise asked
 — a trash bag full of teeth \u2764\ud83e\uddb7 (@a trash bag full of teeth \u2764\ud83e\uddb7)
        1625658766

I used to work on phones for an energy provider in Ireland over 10 years ago. Back then trans visibility was bad but even then we were instructed not to question the customer if they said they were the customer and confirmed the security questions. This is unacceptable
 — Fiona K (@Fiona K)
        1625672779

It's obviously the least important thing here but Dana is also a gender neutral name. So right there the employee had already rounded the corner into Jerk Town.
 — Meghan's unruly chin hair jungle (she/her) (@Meghan's unruly chin hair jungle (she/her))
        1625712872

As a trans customer of @Sephora I'm disgusted by this. Just shut up and take my money. Be nice like you want me to come back and spend more.
 — The Stoic\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08Cmdr.Trifonic (@The Stoic\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08Cmdr.Trifonic)
        1625602248
Online news outlet Daily Dot reached out to Dana for comment. 
She offered some concluding thoughts on the incident. 
"Sephora, like almost every other company, should take a critical look at their policies and procedures to see if they negatively impact trans people and actively try to be more inclusive.""I get it that the world is very large majority cisgender, with only about 1% of the population trans, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't make an effort to be as inclusive as possible. (For perspective, people with red hair are about 2% of the population, so we are a small percent but not insignificant).""With such a large majority of people being cisgender the default for most people is to assume everyone is cis and the trans experience is not even considered, this is what we need to change."With no sign of any public response from Sephora, it is unclear if Dana's experience will lead to improvements for the beauty industry giant. 
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A trans woman recently took to Twitter to recount her unsettling experience attempting to receive phone-based customer service assistance from the beauty product retailer Sephora.

In the multi-part thread, she explained the Sephora customer service representative misgendered her twice—and one of those times came after an uncomfortable clarification.

The woman uses the handle @hypersonicorn and is listed as "Dana" on Twitter.

She shared how she listed her proper gender identity in her online account, but everything went off the rails once a real-life conversation with a customer service rep happened.

All because of gender stereotypes.

Had to out myself as trans to @Sephora customer service because my account says I'm female and they concluded that my voice was too masculine, therefore I must be lying. \n\n@Sephora if you care for trans people for more than just their money, train your people to do better.\n\n1/
— Dana (@Dana) 1625601342

The details, I"m so mad rn:\n\nWhen she asked for my name and I told her and she said "YOUR name is Dana?". Yes bitch, did I stutter? \n\nThen I told her my problem, that the order I just received was missing items (srsly yall need better quality control)\n\n2/
— Dana (@Dana) 1625601342

The representative's skepticism and disbelief about Dana's gender forced her to explain that she was transgender.

After that she said the account owner is listed as female and to protect the account owner she could not help me with my request. Srsly thought she was about to hangup on me at this point.\n\nI told her that I'm female, I'm transgender and yes I know I have a deep voice\n\n3/
— Dana (@Dana) 1625601342

She did apologize and helped me with my issue. Then ends the call with "have a nice day sir" \n\nWTF!! I'm so mad. I'm not sure if I will ever shop there again. There has to be another beauty company that is actually trans inclusive and not just pandering for our money\n\n4/
— Dana (@Dana) 1625601342

As the thread continued, Dana zoomed out and addressed the broader, structural flaws leading to what she was forced to deal with.

Retail accounts like this shouldn't even have gender. If you want to target advertise to me then just use my order history, that is way more effective anyways\n\nI can't even see on my account where my gender is. Did you just assume based on my name? Which is gender neutral btw.
— Dana (@Dana) 1625601343

Also if you're refusing to help me (for security reasons) because you assumed my gender based on my voice and it doesn't match what you got on your screen, then congratulations your security can be defeated by half of humanity.\n\n6/
— Dana (@Dana) 1625601343

Dana then made an important distinction that plenty of other brands have been called out for too.

@hypersonicorn/Twitter

Toward the end of her thread, Dana explained she was able to speak with Sephora about the issue.

I also asked about just removing gender from profiles they essentially said they would take it under consideration and have been asked about that before. Honestly that is probably the most a person at that level could do. But it does leave much to be desired.
— Dana (@Dana) 1625701789

Her tweets left plenty of people outraged right along with her.

I'm so sorry. Similarly, I had heard @Sephora was supposedly trans friendly only to be humiliated, misgendered even after correcting them, and getting the coldest customer service I've ever received in my life during my first visit. \n\nThey're inclusion is all performative BS.
— Zoey // \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f (@Zoey // \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f) 1625627588

I've had this happen before and it's infuriating\nAnd the "Thank you for your patience sir" at the end is just salt and lemon juice, with some chilli powder in my wounds
— Foxy \u0394\u0394\u0394 (@Foxy \u0394\u0394\u0394) 1625664932

I'm wondering just why in the blue hell should it even matter to any company if someone is male or female. This is so beyond unacceptable.
— Das Enforcer Wolf (@Das Enforcer Wolf) 1625617175

Like i worked in a call center for SIX YEARS it's not hard to call someone by the name/pronouns on their account unless otherwise asked
— a trash bag full of teeth \u2764\ud83e\uddb7 (@a trash bag full of teeth \u2764\ud83e\uddb7) 1625658766

I used to work on phones for an energy provider in Ireland over 10 years ago. Back then trans visibility was bad but even then we were instructed not to question the customer if they said they were the customer and confirmed the security questions. This is unacceptable
— Fiona K (@Fiona K) 1625672779

It's obviously the least important thing here but Dana is also a gender neutral name. So right there the employee had already rounded the corner into Jerk Town.
— Meghan's unruly chin hair jungle (she/her) (@Meghan's unruly chin hair jungle (she/her)) 1625712872

As a trans customer of @Sephora I'm disgusted by this. Just shut up and take my money. Be nice like you want me to come back and spend more.
— The Stoic\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08Cmdr.Trifonic (@The Stoic\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08Cmdr.Trifonic) 1625602248

Online news outlet Daily Dot reached out to Dana for comment.

She offered some concluding thoughts on the incident.

"Sephora, like almost every other company, should take a critical look at their policies and procedures to see if they negatively impact trans people and actively try to be more inclusive."

"I get it that the world is very large majority cisgender, with only about 1% of the population trans, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't make an effort to be as inclusive as possible. (For perspective, people with red hair are about 2% of the population, so we are a small percent but not insignificant)."

"With such a large majority of people being cisgender the default for most people is to assume everyone is cis and the trans experience is not even considered, this is what we need to change."

With no sign of any public response from Sephora, it is unclear if Dana's experience will lead to improvements for the beauty industry giant.

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