Discrimination Based On Physical Appearance

Beauty is an imaginary construct created by society. People in society feel a need to be considered beautiful because they want to fit in, and be admired. The importance of beauty in society is prominently portrayed in the Twilight Zone series, episode “Eye of the Beholder” (1960). This episode tells the tale of a young woman, Janet, who strives to be accepted in her society because she looks different than others. Throughout the episode, Janet is trying to change herself to be accepted by others, yet she is not able to truly conform to the look of her society. The episode works to show how in society, the gaze of others is so deeply ingrained in people that it causes them to live for others.

Although, beauty is longing for it is not always beneficial to the beholder. For instance, McIntosh explains how “these varieties are only what one would want for everyone in a just society, and others give license to be ignorant, oblivious, arrogant, and destructive” (31). Sadly, I can relate to her feelings many people do not see beyond my looks and I often find myself becoming part of a stereo type. Many people believe that because I am attractive I wont have to work to be successful. Others express how I will probably end up marrying a wealthy man who is older.

Jane has gotten used to cruelty and biased behavior towards her average looks, and develops a miserable self-esteem that believes the only possible way to describe her exterior is “plain”. This self-esteem prevents her from even beginning to recognize that anyone could appreciate her or find her beautiful in any manner. The society’s typical reactions and judgments shaped Jane’s self-esteem, and prevented her from receiving equal treatment as that of a beautiful woman.

The Beauty Myth’s central argument is the growing standards of physical beauty of women as they grow stronger. This standard has affected women in many ways, such as in the workplace, culture, and religion. The standard has taken over the work of social harassment. The beauty myth expands the belief an unbiased measurement of beauty exists and that women want to express it and men would want that women. The author, Naomi Wolf, states that the beauty myth is not about women themselves, it is about the power of men and their society. The myth supplies power to multibillion dollar cosmetics industries and it keeps women from rising too high in the workplace. Within this book, Wolf shows how the beauty myth functions and affects women in the workplace, media, sex, religion, culture, violence against women by men, and by women themselves in the configuration of cosmetic surgery and eating disorders.

As of recently, the media has been flooded with positive interpretations of beauty standards all over the world. According to various sources, beauty ideals, in women especially, are socially constructed in order to judge a person’s value based on physical attractiveness; therefore, it is highly encouraged that people pay attention to their looks and take care of themselves, in order for others to create a positive first impression of one’s character. It is no secret that beauty standards vary from one culture to the next and it is difficult to establish a universal principle of what is considered beautiful. Many countries’ ideals contrast one another and, as a result, allow for stereotypes to emerge. This is the case between American

When Tally got on the hover-board to go and get her operation she could tell that something was wrong, but she did not know what it was: “The strange-looking man flew with an aggressive impatience”(Westerfeld 99). Then Tally was brought into Special Circumstances and brought into a room. Dr. Cable then walks into the room that Tally was in and told her that she would not be getting the pretty operation unless she helped them find the Smoke. When Tally decides to betray Shay to help Special Circumstances, so she can get the pretty operation is when Tally goes off on her journey to the

There is a cliché quote that people say, “Beauty is in the eye of beholder.” But in the essay “The Ugly Truth About Beauty” (1998) Dave Barry argues about how women who spend countless hours on their so called “beauty” whereas men seem not to care. Barry uses juxtaposition and exaggeration to poke fun at men and women behavior and shed light on the harm that the beauty industry is doing. When Barry argues his point of his essay he addresses both genders, but more specifically teenage to middle age men and women, but he writes about it in a humorous and light-hearted manner.

Imagine living in a world where at the age of sixteen kids turn pretty and their life becomes perfect. Everything in life becomes easy and carefree, sleep all day and party all night. That was the life Tally was suppose to live. The whole concept of the operation was that once someone turns sixteen life becomes perfect. Tally’s trip to the Smoke was suppose to be easy once she arrived at her destination. In the end, it turned into something Tally could have never imagined. Tally’s personality had changed without the operation. In Scott Westerfeld’s book Uglies, Tally learns even the simple things in life can end up being complex.

The beauty standard is a culturally constructed notion of physical attractiveness that has become increasingly imperative for women and men. However, this standard has become extremely perilous to men and women’s self-image. Camille Paglia, a highly educated individual who earned her PhD at Yale University and became a highly acclaimed author, explicates this conception in her essay “The Pitfalls of Plastic Surgery”. Paglia suggests that the beauty standard idealizes women to look like “sex symbols with an unattainable grandeur” (776). She continues to claim that it forces her audience of higher class women to pay large sums of money in order to alter their features ultimately conforming to a very “parochial” definition of beauty (776). Although Paglia is a highly credible source, she illogically appeals to the reader’s fears in order to persuade them. Paglia fails to give any credible outside sources which affirms her preposterous beliefs. Contrary to her inconsistencies, Daniel Akst, a social journalist and graduate from New York University provides his audience with reputable sources in order to persuade his audience. Daniel Akst believes that there needs to be a “democratization of physical beauty” in which instead of attempting to alter the beauty standard, we must first change how we view ourselves. Akst provides credible sources to establish his credibility where he observes cases studies and cultural experiments from scientists and organizations including:

“We all know that appearance matters, but the price of prejudice can be steeper than we often assume” (Washington1.) Published originally in the Washington Post on May 23,2010 by Deborah L. Rhode. Rhode the Professor of law and legal director at Stanford University in her essay “Why Looks Are The Last Bastion Of Discrimination,” argues that an individual's physical appearance is one of the few qualities of their personal identity that other people are legally within their rights to discriminate against. Rhode states her thesis clearly explaining the forthcoming reasons she will offer to uphold her position. Rhode believes that discriminating against individuals based on their appearance is wrong, and is often overlooked in many environments such as the workforce. Many think it is crucial that discrimination on looks is banned in workplaces, schools, and most other organizations.

Cable tells Tally, “’Then I’ll make you a promise too, Tally Youngblood. Until you help us, to the very best of your ability, you will never be pretty” (Loc 1309). After hearing this, Tally reluctantly agrees to help Dr. Cable find Shay. This moment is important because it symbolizes weakness and selfishness in human nature. Sometimes, we are willing to go against someone we love if it benefits ourselves. Tally wants to be perfect so badly that she is willing to turn her friend in to the authorities to get the operation she wants.

Shay, her new best friend, decides to run away to a place where being ugly doesn't really matter to anyone. “ it’s not like here, Tally. They don't separate everyone , uglies from pretties, new and middle and late. And you can leave whenever you want, go anywhere you want.” The relationship that Tally had with Shay was strong, but took the place of the surgery and Tally was willing to turn shay in.

It 's not a mystery that society 's ideals of beauty have a drastic and frightening effect on women. Popular culture frequently tells society, what is supposed to recognize and accept as beauty, and even though beauty is a concept that differs on all cultures and modifies over time, society continues to set great importance on what beautiful means and the significance of achieving it; consequently, most women aspire to achieve beauty, occasionally without measuring the consequences on their emotional or physical being. Unrealistic beauty standards are causing tremendous damage to society, a growing crisis where popular culture conveys the message that external beauty is the most significant characteristic women can have. The approval of prototypes where women are presented as a beautiful object or the winner of a beauty contest by evaluating mostly their physical attractiveness creates a faulty society, causing numerous negative effects; however, some of the most apparent consequences young and adult women encounter by beauty standards, can manifest as body dissatisfaction, eating disorders that put women’s life in danger, professional disadvantage, and economic difficulty.

Together, we can lower the numbers of people dying from eating disorders and cosmetic surgeries by resisting the beauty ideal. We can choose “to not participate in the beauty rituals, to not support the industries that produce both images and products, and to create other definitions of beauty” (WVFV, pg. 232). The most crucial and easiest solution is to create other definitions of beauty. Ultimately, it is up to the individual to decide what is beautiful. What if someone decided that the only thing that could contribute to one’s beauty is who someone is on the inside? Wouldn’t our world be a completely different place? Instead of

A major contribution of this article is that it paves the way for future experiments and empirical studies. The conclusion presented on premia and penalties associated with looks in the article reflect the effect of beauty in all its characteristics, not just one of its many components, such as height, weight, or facial appearance. Future experiment and empirical studies can be built on the layout or techniques presented by this article and can be focused on examining the source of wage differentials and possible discrimination due to a specific characteristic of beauty or various other dimensions such as physical and mental disabilities. Same experiment can also be conducted on data from economies outside of North America to check whether the same premia and penalties of looks exist in other economies.