Society has always been fixated on looks and celebrities, but how
we look has deep ramifications for ordinary people too. In this
book, Bonnie Berry explains how social inequality pertains to
prejudice and discrimination against people based on their physical
appearance. This form of inequality overlaps with other,
better-known forms of inequality such as those that result from
sexism, racism, ageism, and homophobia. Social inequality regarding
looks is notable in a number of settings: work, medical treatment,
romance, and marriage, to mention a few. It is experienced as
limitations on access to social power. Berry discusses the
pressures to be attractive and the methods by which we strive to
alter our appearance through plastic surgery, cosmetics, and the
like. Berry also discusses cultural factors, such as the manner in
which globalization of media, advertisements, and movies have
trended toward homogenization, whereby we are all encouraged to
appear tall, thin, white, and with Northern European features even
if we are none of those things. She also analyzes the underlying
social forces such as economic incentives that, on the one hand,
channel us to be as physically acceptable as possible via the sale
of diet pills and skin lighteners, and on the other hand, encourage
us to accept ourselves as we are by selling us plus-size clothing.
The book concludes with suggestions for equal rights extended to
all regardless of appearance. Here, Berry describes budding social
movements and grassroots endeavors toward an acceptance of "looks
diversity."
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