Informative Essay On Lookism

“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.

Lookism is a more and more pressing problem for companies and corporations, that strive to create an equal opportunities work space. The definition of lookism is “bias or discrimination against individuals on the basis of appearance, often unconscious.” This discrimination refers to both people who are not perceived as attractive and those who have to deal with the stereotypes connected to being exceptionally good-looking.

There is a phrase,” Don’t judge a book by its cover”, that has been taught over and over. It conveys that individuals should not pass judgment on others based on their looks but rather to look past their external appearance. The sad truth is that everyone does judge books by their covers; it is the first thing a person does. To put it another way, appearances influence how one is perceived and there are countless ways to prove this. One example would be in the book Lord of The Flies by William Golding. The author uses Piggy’s character and symbolism to demonstrate how his appearance impacts how his intelligence is perceived.

The sole thought of discriminating against “ugly” people in the United States can seem like a joke to most people around the world. Many that hear this may think America is freedom or the American dream could not be infected with such ideas. Unfortunately, America is flooded with look based hiring system; a way of discriminating against the non-American look. Nowadays, it seems like having a picture of a good-looking person on a resume opens up more doors to getting a job. This is not something new to our society.

Some people occasionally feel that their own appearance is unacceptable to society because of what others are expecting based on published media. Those include, social media, published articles, and even movies and TV shows. The media’s portrayal of beauty has had a generational effect on american society with young people falling victim to unrealistic standards. Failing to participate in these ideals can lead to non acceptance, ostracization, and even bullying due to the unfounded judgements of those who do participate in the beauty standards perpetuated by the media. As a matter of fact, research on the impact of those ideals have been done. Many of the studies have been made based on the outlook of people

To begin with, the pictures of models in the media can influence people that are insecure about how they look. Throughout the years, various psychological effects occur to individuals that are unconfident about their appearance. For example, they can be uncertain about their weight, shape or structure. In the article, “Beauty is the Beast” the author explains media effects our emotions “Psychological effects of the pursuit of the perfect female body include unhappiness, confusion, misery, and insecurity. Women often believe that if only they had perfect looks, their lives would be perfectly happy; they blame their unhappiness on their bodies.” The media gives a negative impression leaving people to become

There are no questions to whether the media has influenced the self-consciousness people have on their body or not. Whether it is the front of a magazine cover or in a film or television show, the selection of models or actors are primarily thin or fit leading readers and viewers to worry or want to change the way their body looks. Body image is the way one sees oneself and imagine how one looks. Having a positive body image means that most of the time someone sees themselves accurately, and feels comfortable in their body; negative body image, what the media exemplifies for the majority of the time, is just the opposite. The media uses unrealistic standards of beauty and bodily perfection to drive ordinary people to be dissatisfied with their body image which can result in the search to obtain these unreachable goals.

In "What Meets the Eye," by Daniel Akst, the author argues that looks in fact do matter, and he evaluates the fact that we all know that looks matter, even more than we think. He mentions that we try to deny that looks do not matter, but on the inside, we do know that looks matter and according to him, looks are very important.

How influential is the media today on society image? Media has made people believe that they need an unrealistic body shape and standard of beauty. There are two types of eating disorders one is called Anorexia Nervosa causing people to obsess about weight and what they digest. The other one is body image subjective or mental image of one’s self. Binge Eating are frequent episode of consuming very large amounts of food without actions to prevent weight gain by self vomiting. Media has disrupt the truly beauty of a person body and mind by having false pretense of beauty. School Christie Arthur is teaching their students about beauty and how media shapes the young eyes of children body concerns (Stayer Students Learn

Basically, the media is doing nothing but using subliminal messages. The way they portray the models in magazines, it only confuses a human’s mind. This makes them believe that they must look like them to be considered beautiful. Often in magazines, when positive values, success, love, and happiness, a thin person is shown. This not only completely lowers a “healthy”, or a plus sized person’s self-esteem, but the media also tries to make it seem as if in order to be happy and successful, a person must be skinny (Piazza). Every day, companies come up with a new beauty product, or a new diet product to leer someone into buying it to make themselves beautiful. New products every day completely sets aside the idea that natural beauty is already beautiful enough. According to the media, though, people need these products to look more humane, or look younger and thinner. The media also using editing and

Steven Greenhouse, writer for New York Times, states in his article “Going for the Look,but Risking Discrimination”, that companies are hiring people based only on how attractive they look and are risking discrimination because of it. Greenhouse then supports his claim by giving examples, like L’Oreal, Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, and W Hotel. He next proceeds to show that hiring based off looks can result in lawsuits and discrimination. Finally, he informs that stores have hired good looking people who are incompetent rather than hiring someone who is not that good looking but is experienced. Greenhouse’s purpose is to show that although it is not illegal to only hire attractive people, it might not be morally correct to just hire on looks.

Have you ever been judged for the way you look? Have you ever been told that you are not pretty enough? This might be because we live in an appearance conscious world, and unless you have the ideal look you will be judged. This has affected many lives of all ages and genders to try to improve their appearance. We hear everywhere that we need to wear certain things, to act certain ways, and most commonly, that we need to lose weight to be happy and accepted in today’s society. This has caused many tragic injuries and mental illnesses to be introduced into the world today.

Beauty standards evolve as people do and are based on the need to procreate. Human beings have been adorning themselves with products to look for appealing for thousands of years. The serious problem we haven't addressed are the subversive messages our corporate owners inculcate us with through media. The hijacking of beauty standards is corporate means to an end. Putting a good looking plus sized woman on the cover of a popular magazine doesn't solve the relative that we are inculcated with falsity.We aren't tackling the root

Studies prove that the media can have a negative impact on self-image. TV, movies, magazines and the internet all pressures what their bodies should look like. In the article, Too sexy too soon: A mother’s battle against the sexualization of girls by Tina Wolridge quoted, “One of the hardest responsibilities of being a parent to a 13-year-old girl is explaining the sexualized images of young women that are seen on TV and in skimpy clothing, magazines and sexy videos…I want my daughter to be valued for her mind, for what's on the inside and for being a good person. I want her to understand that you don't need to get your value from your looks alone (Wolridge, 2013).” It is sad that millions of teens believe the lies and resort to unhealthy measures to try to fit themselves into that impossible mold. They feel so much less because in their heads they see that’s what it takes to be noticed or worthy. Images they see are nothing, but air brushed ideas of what is the vision of perfection. The insecurity one holds buries the true beauty and worthiness that person actual holds. It is sad how the media can have a negative impact to make someone feel ugly and insecure about themselves. They all should be able to love their self for who they really are and how they present themselves no matter what anyone else says.

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.