Looks, Lookism, and the Media

INTRODUCTION Looks, Lookism, and the Media Far more than meets the eye and far deeper than skin deep She was a former NFL cheerleader with silken hair the color of wild honey, tanned, with flawless skin, a smile from a toothpaste ad, and a head-turning figure that was all original equipment. With such looks, Melana Scantlin had no difficulty attracting men. But she didn’t want just anybody. She wanted a special man, one she could start a family with one day, a princely fellow with whom she could spend the rest of her life. But suddenly she was twenty-six and it wasn’t happening. Then Melana, an aspiring actress, was invited to join a kind of video dating service, a unique program designed not only to help find her mate but also to entertain a vast television audience. ................. 16687$ INTR 11-30-07 14:49:15 PS PAGE 1 2 LOOKS As cameras rolled, Melana was introduced to sixteen young men. They were muscular, they were skinny, they were chubby. Some were clean-shaven, others bearded; they wore buzz cuts, fash- ionable hairstyles, or were balding. They were tall, short, and in between. Line up all sixteen and they were pretty much what you might expect to find at a typical American high school’s ten-year class reunion. According to rules that Melana agreed to, she was obliged to date each man at least once. Immediately she saw that the group included several men in whom she had no interest; in short order, they were gone from the program and from her life. Concentrating on the others, she went on dates or hung out with one or another, getting to know each, learning a bit about their lives, their personali- ties, their private priorities. All these men were dubbed ‘‘Average Joes,’’ with unremarkable physical attributes, diverse but ordinary occupations, and unexcep- tional lives. Steadily winnowing the group after a few weeks, Melana finally chose toothy, twenty-eight-year-old Adam Mesh, a husky securities trader with a strong Almost from the moment of New York accent. birth, each of us is judged— Melana said she was sure that she had silently, unconsciously, and found her true love—until the show’s produc- nearly instantly—on the ers threw her a curve. Suddenly, three young basis of everything that men with looks that would have shamed a goes into the mix of quali- Greek god were added to the mix. Would Mel- ties known as ‘‘physical ana prefer any of them to Adam? attractiveness.’’ With little hesitation, she left her ‘‘true love’’ for Jason Peoples, twenty-seven, a part- time waiter still living with his parents. ‘‘The eyes, the face, the smile. How could you deny that?’’ said Melana as she and her Adonis flew off for a honeymoon-like vaca- tion at an exclusive resort. When this lovely woman abruptly rejected a successful trader who had been the subject of a Fortune magazine article to party with a gorgeous slacker, millions of American women, vicariously living Melana’s romance, rejoiced. Older and wiser, they might not ................. 16687$ INTR 11-30-07 14:49:16 PS PAGE 2 INTRODUCTION: LOOKS, LOOKISM, AND THE MEDIA 3 have chosen the ambition-challenged Jason over one of Wall Street’s rising stars—but still, they could appreciate why she had. That’s because for a long time Americans, like people of most other cultures, have allowed what they see of a person to strongly influence what they feel and believe about that person. Almost from the moment of birth, each of us is judged—silently, unconsciously, and nearly instantly—on the basis of our height (or lack of it), our weight and bulk, the shape and symmetry of our facial features, the length and style of our hair, our mode of dress, our grooming—everything that goes into the mix of qualities known as ‘‘physical attractiveness.’’ Sometimes termed ‘‘lookism’’—treating people in ways biased by their perceived individual level of physical attractiveness—the ‘‘physical attractiveness (PA)’’ phenomenon has been studied in depth for decades by social scientists of many disciplines, including psychologists, sociologists, biologists, and anthropologists. They have produced a panoply of sometimes-contradictory research data. But while this subject continues to be studied, a fair appraisal of science’s collective conclusion is that in America, more than in most Western cultures, what you look like—or more important, how others perceive you—shapes your life in dozens of often subtle ways from cradle to grave. As you will see in following chapters, PA affects the way nurses treat newborns in the same way that it shapes the manner in which parents act and react with their children. PA influences a child’s self- image and becomes a significant factor in how teachers evaluate, assist, and grade pupils from kindergarten to graduate school. It’s a key factor in finding and keeping mates and close friends, in choos- ing an occupation, in finding or keeping a job, and in defining the limits of an individual’s success in a chosen field. PA’s effects permeate such supposedly neutral arenas as court- rooms and elections. Juries, for example, tend to attach more cre- dence to the arguments of a winsome attorney than a less enticing counterpart. Each witness’s testimony is unconsciously processed through jurors’ perceptions of the individual’s PA, and anyone ac- cused of a crime is judged as much on his personal PA as on the facts introduced to a jury. ................. 16687$ INTR 11-30-07 14:49:16 PS PAGE 3 4 LOOKS Since the 1960s, when television finally permeated even the most remote corners of America, it has been nearly impossible for a truly unsightly candidate to win national elective office. And it is almost as difficult for a PA-challenged person to win a local election as it would be to enter a beauty contest. Just as the rise of the mass media has shaped public perceptions on the parameters of Millions of Americans have personal attractiveness, PA has reshaped the turned their waking lives media itself. Where television news reporters into endless quests for once were unremarkable in appearance, it is enhanced PA, often at the now virtually impossible to find an American expense of their health. man or woman reading news copy to a camera who could not be described as attractive or good-looking. Fueled by an explosion of media images that glorify youth and beauty, millions of Americans have turned their waking lives into endless quests for enhanced PA, often at the expense of their health. So powerful are these media images that in the twenti- eth century, once-rare conditions such as anorexia and bulimia are commonplace throughout the Western world. Literally millions of young people, mostly female, have become so obsessed in the pur- suit of attaining a single dimension of PA—body weight—that they willingly endanger their lives by denying their bodies essential nutri- tion. Other millions exhaust their savings or incur huge debts to pay for one or more cosmetic surgery procedures, often risking their lives. Fed by ever-increasing demand, hucksters, charlatans, and criminals of every stripe prey on vulnerable people, taking their money and leaving a trail of death and disfigurement in their wake. At the turn of this century, the hottest fad in prime-time television was a raft of ‘‘reality’’ shows featuring young, attractive, and often scantily attired contestants competing for love and money. Whether a ‘‘tribe’’ transported to some remote but photogenic lo- cation, couples risking their lives to overcome fear, penniless male hunks presented as wealthy tycoons to clueless female sex objects, or men and women craving cosmetic makeovers, the common de- nominator is sex appeal: Except as the butt of some joke, reality contestants of average appearance are in short supply. ................. 16687$ INTR 11-30-07 14:49:17 PS PAGE 4 INTRODUCTION: LOOKS, LOOKISM, AND THE MEDIA 5 Even in death PA has news value: If a picture is available, television news directors are far more likely to air the killing or injury of an attractive victim than a plain one. PA also has a profound influence on the nature and reach of Western culture, including how we define role models, who governs us, what products we buy, and what services we consume. It is a component of the core values that we pass along to our children and of our choice of friends; in short, the PA phenomenon perme- ates Western society and makes a powerful difference in the lives of hundreds of millions of people. While PA’s effects are amplified by mass media, the phenomenon itself is older than history: There is evidence that some Stone Age women in southern Europe styled their hair. Did they take the time and trouble it must have required 20,000 years before perms, curlers, and hair dryers merely to lure a better class of mastodon to dinner? I don’t think so. History began with the written word—and glamour immediately became an important part of it. For example, in the fourteenth century b.c., Egypt’s queen was Nefertiti, whose name means ‘‘the beautiful one is come.’’ Did she have other qualifications? Impor- tant family connections or diplomatic skills? Management expertise? From her name alone it’s obvious that few cared. Even Aristotle (384–322 b.c.), ancient Greece’s premier ob- server of human nature, recognized the importance of PA. ‘‘Per- sonal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference,’’ he wrote.

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