As I sit here watching the Grammy’s, it’s pretty face after pretty face that pops up on the screen. I know much of it has to do with the hundreds of thousands of dollars these multi-million dollar music artists put into maintaining their image, but is it all worth it? Probably so. It’s an age-old cliché throughout the entertainment “biz,” but sex does seem to sell, and it probably isn’t just limited to the entertainment field.
One major facet that seems to get overlooked when people talk about discrimination is gender. Since this is a race AND gender class, hopefully the latter doesn’t get overlooked too much. Unlike the race debate, there are two numerically equal parties to this gender discussion. Since that’s the case, you’d think that there would be little disparity between the two as far as an equality standpoint. Wrong. There is some disparity, along with some other underlying discriminatory elements within each gender.
One of the most interesting topics to me is that along with discrimination between males and females, there’s undoubtedly discrimination between pretty and ugly. I think this happens more amongst women than men, but it does happen to guys, too. I call it “pretty people’s privilege.” We’ve all seen it before. Girl gets job because she dresses sexy, yet girl is dumber than a box of hammers. This privilege isn’t just getting the big things in life, i.e. jobs and raises. It can be something as small as getting the door held for you or any other kind gesture.
What D.L. Hughley talks about in that clip is obviously an exaggeration, but I think the thoughts behind it ring 100% true. There absolutely is a “pretty people’s privilege,” and knowingly or not, we all take part in it. I can’t say that I haven’t done this before, either. I think if injected with a truth serum, we’d all admit to have given someone who is physically gifted better treatment than if he/she was below average looking.
In this image-is-everything society, talents and personality seem to get overshadowed by perfect, sparkling-white teeth and frosted hair tips. That’s a concern, or should I say, that should be a huge concern. It’s disappointing to see so many unintelligent people get by on their looks alone, especially when many of these gorgeous people are, in all actuality, ugly-acting people.
This is absolutely SO true. I think this is one of the most prevalent and influcing types of privilege that so frequently gets over looked or left out of conversations when talking about privilege. I had an interesting conversation last weekend that is exactly related to this. I was talking with my cousin, who is a waitress at a bar in Dallas. She just happens to be blonde, blue eyed, and insanely skinny but not in an anorexic way. She is definately the stereotypical image of a "hot" girl. She is very spunky and confrontational in a funny goofy way. But she was talking about tips and people who don't tip well and telling a story about how she will flat out tell people if she does not think they have left her an acceptable tip and almost always when she does the person will give her a bigger tip. But one of her friends, another waitress at the same bar, who happens to not be so cute, and not nearly as skinny, tried to do the same thing and got a complaint to her manager. Their manager talked to my cousin and said flat out that my cousin can get away with it because she's cute and skinny but the other girl can not get away with the same thing because she does not look as good. It's sad that this is a reality but it is so true that the cuter the waitress the better the tip.
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