60 Minutes has discovered that certain retailers, Abercrombie & Fitch for example, hire sales people of a certain physical “type”.
In particular, Abercrombie’s “lookism” favors tall, athletic, thin, blonde-haired, blue-eyed males.
I’m surprised that “lookism” should be considered newsworthy by the longest running prime time news program on television. Retailers (and airlines and hoteliers and even sub shops) like to hire good looking people. To quote one of my friends, “YA THINK??”
Upon reaching early middle age, I went through the traditional reconciliation to one’s limitations. As a result, I accepted what being “plain” (polite society’s euphemism for “homely”) means in personal lifestyle terms – hostile tradefolk, invisibility in public venues, and those awful fifth wheel social invitations.
You know, where they think they have to invite you because you’re an appendage of an actual guest, and the hostess prays that you will simply be inconspicuous and not frighten the children.
Having had a long career in Human Resources, I also recognized that the best-looking people always get the top pay and that if you over-reach, you get beaten to a pulp. I knew I’d never afford a houseboat in Capri, but I always figured I could make a living.
To ensure success as I graduated from passable to crone, I migrated to a career in technology. My assumption was that computers – and a priori those who use them – don’t care what a programmer looks like.
Wrong, very wrong. In some organizations, good looks (in the case of women, this is, of course, connected to age) masquerade as a BFOQ (bona fide occupational qualification) for every job that requires even infrequent contact with “The Boss”, kind of like having to pass muster with the sultan even if he visits the harem only once a year.
I’ve only recently encountered the kind of extreme “lookism” (aka age and gender discrimination) that results in economic capital punishment. Is this a new trend: a sense of entitlement to view only eye candy in the workplace? Or is it found only in companies with enough liability insurance to deliberately foster a discriminatory environment?
Be that as it may, I’ll be interested in what 60 Minutes has to say and whether viewer reaction will encourage CBS to find more examples of this particular kind of bias. They should call me, I can give them names.