Samantha Brick caused an uproar on the Internet last week, when she explained that women hated her because she was beautiful. Her article went viral, though, only because Samantha wasn't that pretty. Apparently, there's nothing funnier than laughing at an average looking woman who believes she's beautiful.
The Economist reports on a new study that finds that attractive women who attach a photo along with their resume when applying for a job are less likely to be brought in for an interview than moderate looking women. The reason? Human resources staff tend to be women, and women don't like women who are better looking then they are.
A few days ago, Ashley Judd complained that the gossip rags accused her of getting plastic surgery, when steroids made her puffy. This article was forwarded quite a bit around the Internet by lots of feminist friends, because Judd seemed to be making feminist arguments.
Like Alexandra Petri, I wanted to like this article, but walked away with a "meh." Judd isn't famous for her acting ability. She's famous because she's a pretty woman. She's in an industry where other pretty women make themselves into horror shows with plastic surgery and then pretend that they haven't had any work done. This industry constantly shames other women for their lack of physical perfection. My pity for Judd does not run deep.
It's kinda nice to be getting to an age, where my appearance, good or bad, isn't important.
Apt. 11d 
Attaching a photo when applying for a job sounds like one of those weird European things that I’ll never understand, like soccer or Morrissey.
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or Marmite.
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Marmite isn’t that unpalatable.
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That Brick article is funny. It reminds me of the clueless “I’m not rich even though I make 400K” article. I think there are people out there who live in a narcissistic bubble and don’t understand how what they say sounds like to others. And, now, thanks to the internet, everyone hears about them.
I think more data on attractiveness and life outcomes would be interesting (though the research is often somewhat bogus). My personal perception is that it’s not pure physical beauty that affects life outcomes, but, is instead the confidence, outgoing personality, smiles, and, yes, flirtiness that correlates with physical attractiveness.
(I think you’re not being fair to Ashley Judd. Yes, actresses have to be beautiful/pretty women, mostly, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t also have other talents. Judd’s acting hasn’t stuck in my memory, but I’m absolutely convinced that Lindsey Lohan, before shew blew up her world, was a good actress and a very smart kid).
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On the photos with job applications issue, I wonder if “attractiveness” in a woman wasn’t seen as an indicator that the woman was of the age where she was most likely to need maternity leave. In my experience, businesses are far more brutal about labor costs than women are about other women.
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“I wonder if “attractiveness” in a woman wasn’t seen as an indicator that the woman was of the age where she was most likely to need maternity leave.”
That sounds plausible.
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I concur with bj on Ashley Judd. She went to the Kennedy School for an M.A. in public policy. Can’t speak to the quality of her work or the nature of her admission, about which cynics might scoff, but I certainly respect her impulse.
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The manuscript is available (on the job call back experiment): http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1705244
The people were recruited from the student population at Ben-Gurion University, so there shouldn’t be large age differences in their plain/pretty population (though, they don’t address the issue directly, so it remains a potential confound). In addition, it’s also possible that plain women *looked* older, even if they weren’t. And, there could be a bias that incorporates the correlation between beauty and fertility that evolutionary pop psych likes to cite.
It’s an interesting paper, though I think their test of the hypothesis of jealousy as an explanation is incomplete.
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The reason so many young, cute actresses get a shot at acting is that older actresses are quickly shown the door. (I personally lost track of who is who about three generations of cute young actresses ago–the career length of these young women resembles the life span of the fruit fly.)
Here is an example of what it looks like when the shoe is on the other foot:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/swoon_sigh_sucker_for_man_full_of_JwSK4k3buZ6XugeZGYW1hO
Executive summary: Andrea Peyser calls Alec Baldwin “buxom.”
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Speaking of Ashley Judd, Double Jeopardy was a very stupid movie, premise-wise.
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I never said Judd was dumb. I just don’t have any patience with people who say, “Look at me! Look at me! No! Don’t look at me now!”
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“I just don’t have any patience with people who say, ‘Look at me! Look at me! No! Don’t look at me now!'”
As opposed to your rogues’ gallery of commenters.
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“We are unable at times to identify ourselves as our own denigrating abusers, or as abusing other girls and women.” I agree with her there. Wholeheartedly.
I don’t think Judd was necessarily asking for pity or sympathy. I think she was asking that women realize that we can’t win as long as we obsessively fuel the discussion about and judging of other women’s bodies.
She might not be the best spokesperson in some ways to make that point, at least not without acknowledging the way that the industry she participates in fuels the commentary, but I don’t think there should be some rule about only ugly women getting to say something about it. I hope if my daughter turns out to be beautiful that she feels perfectly comfortable telling other people that commentary on her body is not welcome any damn time she wants to, no matter what career she chooses to pursue. I’ll admit though that I also hope and pray she doesn’t want to be an actress!
I can’t imagine Judd doesn’t realize that she’s beautiful and that that beauty has given her great privilege within her chosen profession (and her family name probably hasn’t hurt either). But I think she has a point that we are far too accepting of obsessive commentary and speculation about other women’s bodies. It isn’t just the enquirer anymore, much more mainstream news sources have gotten into the game becuase those articles get page views and comments and everything else that advertisers like. It’s sick. And as someone now raising a daughter it’s something I’m much more keenly aware of becuase I can see how accepting relentless commentary on Judd’s body also allows, for example, my relatives to sit around commenting on my niece’s bodies and looks and how A is “so tall and so skinny and lovely. She was so chubby a few years ago, now she looks like a model” and L is “still chubby. Her mother is worried about her you know.”. L who just got into Georgetown mind you. Who’s body is perfectly healthy and strong, but of course, never good enough. God help them if these women one day make the mistake of commenting on my daughter’s body in such a way in my presence. Judd invites commentary on her body not just becuase she’s an actress but becuase she’s a woman. It’s amplified for her but it’s there for all of us.
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Does this mean no posts devoted to Callista Gingrich’s hair and no endless pieces about Michelle Obama’s toned arms? (There’s an entire book at Amazon entitled “Totally Toned Arms: Get Michelle Obama Arms in 21 Days.”) Is Robin Givhan’s life’s work acceptable?
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Here’s where I stand on the matter. Yes, society does offer too much commentary on women’s bodies. That’s wrong. Yes, we’re allowed to make snarky jokes about public people and their appearances. That’s okay. Why? Just because.
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Do you want to make a private person/public figure distinction?
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It’s not just private/public person dichotomy. My rules. I think it is fine to make commentary on a public person’s clothes. Matt Lauer’s hair loss is fair game, but commentary on Meredith Veiera’s wrinkles is not cool. Mocking people for plastic surgery is okay. It’s never okay to make commentary about people’s weight or natural aging, even if they are a Hollywood celebrity.
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When I was involved in hiring interns for a judge’s chambers, in the cases (very few) when someone (always a man) attached a photo to his resume, we would think, “Probably an odd-ball, or at least someone who doesn’t understand social norms”. Given that none of these people otherwise would have been our first choice, they got dinged.
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There’s an entire book at Amazon entitled “Totally Toned Arms: Get Michelle Obama Arms in 21 Days.”
Is it marketed to women?
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“Is it marketed to women?”
Judging by the fact that all the pictures on the cover are of women, yes.
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“It’s never okay to make commentary about people’s weight or natural aging, even if they are a Hollywood celebrity. ”
Then Matt Lauer’s hair loss should not be fair game.
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There is actually an academic study out somewhere where they compared the letters of recommendation written by graduate advisors for their students — broken down by gender and ethnicity.
It turns out that a grad advisor is much more likely to mention in a womans’ letter something along the lines of she’s a good time manager/very balanced/great job of juggling family and home responsibilities. (THis is true for any field — whether a woman is running a lab or writing a dissertation, gathering data, etc.)
A grad advisor is much more likely to comment on physical appearance when writing an LOR for a minority woman — frequently using those Edward Said orientalist words like exotic and so forth.
And then there’s that study that says your teaching evaluations will be better if you’re attractive. (As a fat woman, I’ve often wondered if some of my students simply resented having to look at me all semester instead of the ‘hot’ professor whose classroom was next door to mine.)
I had the experience about twenty years ago of working with a male colleague who was seriously beautiful, like stunningly model beautiful — and watching his academic star rise so far and so fast, and thinking how strange it was, since he was not actually all that bright. But he had all those things that studies often note — that taller men tend to make more money, etc.
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“Then Matt Lauer’s hair loss should not be fair game.”
Right. But being consistent, Laura can still mock bad hair pieces and crudely done hair transplants, not to mention iffy dye jobs.
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“(As a fat woman, I’ve often wondered if some of my students simply resented having to look at me all semester instead of the ‘hot’ professor whose classroom was next door to mine.)”
Don’t those rate-my-professor sites often have a rating category for faculty hotness?
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Samantha Brick might have tremendous charisma in person, which doesn’t translate to still photos.
I think the depth of the attention public figures receive these days can be harmful. It must be strange to know that your every breath is scrutinized and criticized by millions of people. “News” and entertainment companies make money by feeding the frenzy. And amongst the media consumers there are some unbalanced people.
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Yes, I suppose the students could have explored my ‘hotness factor’ prior to enrolling, but from what I understand, the hottie’s sections all filled first, and the ones who didn’t get in had to look at me instead.
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