Like most privileges, we exist with them in unison with our personalities, faults and talents. Each working together with luck and opportunity to create the circumstances we find ourselves in. Today, let’s take a moment and think about what being beautiful gets us; how far can we go in life relying on our looks to get us into coveted doors?
Pretty privilege is defined as having unearned advantages based on our looks.
People whose looks align with perceived notions of beauty, often Eurocentric, are thought of more highly compared to someone who lacks sought-after physical appearances. In every domain of life, we can see how beauty creates advantages while creating a double-edged sword for those objectified and minimized to nothing but their looks.
The Halo Effect was coined in 1920 by psychologist Edward Thorndike and it described how our impressions of someone influences our feelings and thoughts concerning their character. The basis of our impression has to do with how someone looks; for better and worse, this oftentimes premature evaluation helps us make sense of the world.
Psychology today states that, “the halo effect can create self-fulfilling prophecies in which attractive individuals receive more opportunities to succeed, enhancing their skills and experiences.
As I was pitching this idea, I felt I wasn’t saying anything people do not already know, so I looked for research corroborating my presuppositions.
Newsweek conducted a survey and found that 64% of respondents said, “good-looking individuals had it easier to advance in their careers, whether it would be a woman or a man.”
The problem though, is that there’s another side to this story, and it lies in a term called the Bimbo Effect. This is where a good looking woman, while beautiful, is seen as incompetent. The double-edged sword that is beauty is not a black-and-white concept. The conversation deserves a nuanced, situational approach. Each of us experiences how our beauty manifests opportunities in different ways.
By analyzing workplaces, we can see where beauty intersects with income, perceived intelligence and disciplinary leniency. Servers who are beautiful tend to make more money than their less-attractive counterparts.
The New York Post found that employees who viewed themselves as extremely attractive earned $19,945 more annually. Researchers have gone further to suggest that attractive people are oftentimes seen as more likable and intelligent, resulting in a higher likelihood that they are hired or promoted.
What’s important is to realize we are programmed to believe certain beauty standards are greater than others. History carries with it standards that vary among cultures and societies, but what doesn’t change is our attraction to the standard in spite of its subjective nature.
Romantically, we cannot help calling others beautiful whilst simultaneously putting down others who don’t look the part. We all try to look the part, but most of us know where we fall on the scale. Psychologically, beautiful people are consistently reminded of their looks, and it can lead to increased position reinforcement from external sources.
Dr. Afzal from Verywell Mind says it best concerning people who don’t benefit from pretty privilege: “may struggle with feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem, as they may receive less positive feedback and validation from others.”
This should all complement what we already know about the world. Looking at places like Twin Peaks and Hooters, it’s easy to understand the draw. The hot secretary, the cute nurse, the attractive server or the hot mom all serve as stereotypes rooted in pop culture, namely porn.
It’d be impossible to ask myself to ignore beautiful people and beauty in general as I walk through life, but I would say we should remind ourselves of the red dress trope. Famous for its appearance in the movie The Matrix, the woman in the red dress is a symbol for the distraction of beauty.
Don’t get flustered eyeing beauty and instead eye connection. Romantically or platonically, no one must meet any standard beyond common interests and personality when evaluating character. No one should be treated like a DUFF (designated ugly fat friend).
Ask yourself who stands in the middle of the photo when you take a group selfie? Who usually finds themselves on the edge of conversation, chiming in with laughs and jokes instead of giving real insight? Who actually gets to talk about themselves and has everyone listen and give feedback?
We cannot continue to treat people as less than because they do not meet a subjective standard that we didn’t create but that we help perpetuate.
Mohammad Tantawi is a 24-year-old mass communication senior from Smyrna, Tenn.
