Persuasive Speech On Lookism

After reading “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” by Judith Ortiz Cofer, the reader is able to see that her essay focusses on personal appearance choices which she has compared and contrasted with her own early-life experiences. Based on how an individual appears at first sight, it dictates how others socially judge and stereotype us beyond the “beauty” dimension. For example, an individual may think about what he or she is going to wear when going out to eat at a restaurant. If the individual is going to go Buffalo Wild Wings to dine, obviously he or she is going to wear an outfit that fits them in society’s social norms which is a basic t-shirt, jeans, and shoes. However, if he or she shows up dressed up

Majority of transgender people will face some sort of discrimination in their lifetime whether it is through being rejected by their families, denied housing or finding employment. “Employment discrimination forces many to become involved in the street economy and in survival crime. Widespread bias and ignorance among law enforcement and other officials mean that transgender people are disproportionately subjected to arrest and, in turn, imprisonment.” (al, 2011)

In Steven Greenhouse’s article “Going for the Look, but Risking Discrimination”, he expresses the experiences of a striking blonde girl and her specific encounters with employers of retail stores. She indeed is beautiful, striking, gorgeous, and absolutely perfect. Who could ever miss a chance to hire such a remarkable and flawless brand representer. In fact, many store employers are desperately in search of these types of people to help advertise themselves and their businesses. Although Marshal Cohen’s argument in his excerpt seems legitimate, it is actually flawed because having the looks can only take an individual so far.

He mentions several key factors that support his argument that looks do matter; Socially, attractive people are more likely to get paid more on the job, and mothers tend to look for attractiveness in their children. The way someone looks tends to determine their social status, physical activity, and their fitness level. From 1939 to 1989, the importance of looks to both men and women increased along with the change in trends in fashion, magazines, and the media, and that these trends will continue to develop along with technological changes that are not likely to change anytime soon. The author then mentions obesity, and its effect on someone's look. In a study, people that weighed more pounds were estimated to be older than the thinner person. As society further develops, the way both men and women dress changed in terms of the level of formality. The clothes we wear to school/work, private/public, and formal/informal are the same because America has been getting more casual ever year. There is no longer a distinction in clothing between gender, class, and age. Shorts used to be meant for youth only, but now you see people of all age wearing

Both gay and transgender individuals continue to face widespread discrimination in their workplace. They are being judged by factors that have no impact on how they perform and

“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.

“Judging by the Cover,” is an essay written in 2003 by Bonny Gainley who is a consultant, speaker, and author. It originally appeared in an opinion column in a Colorado newspaper. Although non-discriminatory, she believes that people project messages about themselves with their appearance. This essay seems to be intended for recent graduates and young job seekers. The main point that she tries to explain to the reader is that even though our family and friends may accept us for who we are, employers may not.

According to the article “Gender Identity Discrimination” (n.d), this occurs in the place of work when a company or its management makes a distinction in opposition to a worker exclusively because of their sexual characteristics or distinctiveness. This can include ceasing employment for a transgender staff member after the company/employer discovers the employee's gender distinctiveness or intended plan for conversion. This can also consist of rejecting a transgender employee’s admittance to the bathroom amenities at work that are accessible to other staff members. This may also include necessitating a transgender individual use the bathroom that is not constant with the person’s gender individuality or appearance. Also included in this form of discrimination is harassment or refusing to investigate claims of persecution by coworkers and management. As well as, any other unconstructive employment exploitation directly related to the employee’s gender presentation. Is should be noted that at right now , this category of discrimination is not illegal under federal law , however, there is governmental endeavors in the works to pass federal laws to make it unequivocally

As I was reading The Beauty Bias, by Deborah L. Rhodes, I came across a statistic that perplexed me, saying the total “annual global investment in grooming” comes to $115 billion (Rhodes, pg. 32). This shocking fact provokes a worrisome question: Why do we, humans, spend so much time, money, and thought on our appearance? As a complex question, there are several equally complex answers. However, the simple answer is that everyone else invests their time and thought into your outer shell, eliciting effort from you to improve what they study - your external image. The concern placed on one’s fashion choice or natural features by society takes away from larger, more pressing issues such as the declining economy, or feeding third-world countries.

As we discussed the policy, and what was "fair" and "unfair", it occurred to me that this has always been the case when it comes to dress code and dress code enforcement. Girls are the target. Girls bear the burden of what's appropriate and what is inappropriate, but why?

Every single day when I wake up in the morning, one of the first things I do is look at myself in the mirror. Am I skinny enough? Is my skin clear enough? Do I look like the girl from the magazine I was reading yesterday? No. I don’t. But I’ll keep asking these questions each and everyday because that is what the media tells me I need to look like. Because if my waist isn’t small enough I’m not pretty. Because if I have cellulite on my legs there’s something wrong with me. Because if I don’t slot into this unattainable standard. I'm not beautiful. Airbrushing and photoshopping models in pictures to display through media is something that frankly speaking is appalling. We are alienating beautiful human beings because of the media’s dictations on what we should look like. I am sick of being brainwashed to the point where all I can ever seem to do is single out the ‘flaws’ in myself. If we display, real, beautiful, raw pictures of people in media then so many problems caused by this would no longer exist.

Wolf discusses the effect that these standards are having on women in the workplace. A woman’s beauty, or lack of it, can be used against her. In 1986, Mechelle Vinson lost a sexual harassment case. “Vinson was young and ‘beautiful’ and carefully dressed. The district court ruled that her appearance counted against her.” (Wolf 38) “In Hopkins v. Price-Waterhouse, Ms. Hopkins was denied a partnership because she needed to learn to ‘walk more femininely, talk more femininely, dress more femininely,’ and ‘wear makeup’.” She brought in more business than any other employee. (Wolf 39)

Just like that, when you meet a human being, the very first thing that you notice is the way he looks. It's very natural, nothing wrong about that. More often than not, a person's talent is ignored just because he/she happens to look .. well, plain. Be it in the professional or the personal life, a man / woman needs to have a good personality to climb that ladder of success.

Transgender people are discriminated on an almost daily basis. They are discriminated in the workplace, as shown in a study commisioned by the Equalities Review. In a group of transgender people who have jobs and are prone to workplace-enviroment effects and opinions, “many respondents experienced harassment from co-workers and employers.” Nearly 29% of the group experience verbal abuse and harassment in the workplace enviroment, and about 4% received physical abuse. About 7% experienced threats, and about 27% experienced some sort of different treatment due to their gender non-conforming ways.(Whittle 38-39). In another study, it was found that being mistreated in the school years would have a negative effect on future outcomes relating to employment. “Those who were physically attacked in school were considerably more likely to stay in a job (64%) compared to those who were not (42%) (Grant 50).” They are also discriminated in public as well, adding on to the distress that many transgender people suffer from regularly, making it seem as if all transgender people are crazy. Transgender people are just more likely to be diagnosed as someone with a mental disorder because its helpful to see that those who have been diagnosed are “hurting and something needs to be done to help (Kreitler 1).” In

The first section addresses the question of whether it is possible to use measures of beauty to analyze the role of looks in the labour market. Since, it would be futile to examine the effect of beauty on employment if there is no mutual agreement on what defines beauty. Using data from