It may seem an ugly truth to some that beautiful people are often more successful than plain ones. But now appearance has emerged as a new form of discrimination in legal disputes. Some claim that lookism is a new form of racism that should be banished from civilized society. Discrimination based on ugliness is no different from discrimination based on race or disability. But it is hard for lookism to rise to political theory because it shields itself from fatal unreasonableness, but most of the public follow blindly, and the so-called lie told a thousand times becomes the preconceived correct truth. In South Korea, looks not only affect employment and promotion, but also a person’s social status and interpersonal relationships, far more than society can tolerate. The first and most obvious way in society to dominate the self-esteem of others is through the expectation of appearance, which may vary from culture to culture. Ortiz-Cofer strongly proved this at the beginning of her story, explaining that she “was a white girl born in Puerto Rico, but became a brown girl when she came to the United States to live.” How her relative perceptions vary from location to location affects the way she labels herself. On the one hand, “lookism” discriminates against those with less than perfect appearance, which has a great impact on their study, life and employment. On the other hand, people who can afford to reshape their appearance and eliminate feelings of inferiority tend to discriminate against those who can’t, exacerbating their feelings of inferiority and psychological stress. This kind of lookism theory inevitably involves the presence of others, and these differences often provide a pernicious basis when it comes to how others see us. For those labeled as “others,” the struggle and burden of physical and mental growth are inherently more difficult. Otis-Cofer details this phenomenon in her novel The Story of My Body, where she demonstrates that as an ‘other’ she faced countless struggles and difficulties in self-image and growing up that no one in her generation had to face. As Otis-Cofer says, the good-looking people don’t have to deal with this, and it’s unfair to the other.
I really like your post. I heard the word ‘appearance discrimination’ before and I enjoyed reading your post a lot. The appearance varies from person to person. Ugliness and beauty are different because different people have different aesthetic concepts. This means that there is no one and no criteria should classify individuals with certain facial features into a minority, so as to distinguish them from others.
I could not agree more about what you said. A person’s appearance is determined before they are born. This is very unfair to people who are born with disabilities or who look ordinary. On top of that, there are children born into wealthy families who do not have to think about whether they will have food tomorrow. However, some children born in poor areas may only be able to eat a few times a week. There are so many inequities in the world. To be honest, it is hard to change this phenomenon and fact in a world that is so complex and involved in people’s emotions and senses. The world is full of randomness and uncertainty. People cannot change this series of inherently unfair events at the moment. But I think people should give more help and care to these groups that are born with a gap between them and others. The right value and education are needed for every single person.