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Friday, September 02, 2011

Should Being Beautiful — or Ugly — Pay Off?

Beauty, or lack thereof, seems to be the topic of the week.

Sunday's New York Times started it off, with an op-ed arguing that ugly people should be protected under the law like other minority groups. Sociologist Catherine Hakim disagreed, contending (and promoting her new book Erotic Capital) that discrimination is a part of life and that women should use their looks to get ahead. Too bad for those of us who aren't gorgeous.

Then, controversy erupted over a girls' T-shirt being sold on J.C. Penney's website. The T-shirt, which was printed with the message "I'm too pretty to do homework, so my brother has to do it for me," was immediately criticized by consumers for being sexist, and the store
pulled it from the site.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

They did the right thing by pulling the shirt. It's an insult and it sets the tone that if you have good looks, you don't have to use your brain.
Beauty can definitely work the other way as well. You can be discriminated against if you are pretty and you have a boss that is a deadbeat ugly. The real kicker is beauty is something that starts on the inside. It's attitude, joy, and taking care of yourself.

You mix beauty(charisma) with brains, and you have a very powerful ingredients.

Anonymous said...

Don't know if it should, but it does.
What about t-shirts stating "I wish these were brains"?

Anonymous said...

Just look at those ladies of Fox News. Super hot and super smart!

Anonymous said...

I watch the mexican channel and enjoy it. I don't have a clue what the hell they are saying , but they got some hot chicks on there.