"The ugly person whose experience is discounted as having nothing to do with their looks is being gaslit because what seems obvious to her or him is being glossed over.
One major difference to standard cases of gaslighting is that this rejection of the ugly person's interpretation is, presumably, not necessarily done in order to attain power over the person. The benefit to the gaslighter in such cases is twofold. On the one hand, the gaslighter avoids the uncomfortable speech act of ascribing the ugly person what is considered a slur: 'ugly' or 'unattractive'. On the other hand, gaslighting in such cases rather serves as a means to uphold the cultural taboo associated with ugliness...
The taboo of ugliness and the corresponding testimonial injustice created by it are part of the system of silence and lack of interest regarding lookism and it's effects. These effects are mutually reinforcing the taboo of ugliness causes ugly people to not fully appreciate the reasons for some of their ills which in turn discourages them from even testifying about them to others...
If ugly people are told repeatedly that they are not ugly or that their woes are not due to them being ugly, even though they are, then this social taboo of being ugly and telling someone they might be ugly, are what puts those people at a hermeneutic disadvantage of interpreting the social world and their place in it.
The taboo upholds a disconnect between the way ugly people experience the social world and the way in which they are told the social world actually is."
Lookism as Epistemic Injustice
https://tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02691728.2022.2076629
One major difference to standard cases of gaslighting is that this rejection of the ugly person's interpretation is, presumably, not necessarily done in order to attain power over the person. The benefit to the gaslighter in such cases is twofold. On the one hand, the gaslighter avoids the uncomfortable speech act of ascribing the ugly person what is considered a slur: 'ugly' or 'unattractive'. On the other hand, gaslighting in such cases rather serves as a means to uphold the cultural taboo associated with ugliness...
The taboo of ugliness and the corresponding testimonial injustice created by it are part of the system of silence and lack of interest regarding lookism and it's effects. These effects are mutually reinforcing the taboo of ugliness causes ugly people to not fully appreciate the reasons for some of their ills which in turn discourages them from even testifying about them to others...
If ugly people are told repeatedly that they are not ugly or that their woes are not due to them being ugly, even though they are, then this social taboo of being ugly and telling someone they might be ugly, are what puts those people at a hermeneutic disadvantage of interpreting the social world and their place in it.
The taboo upholds a disconnect between the way ugly people experience the social world and the way in which they are told the social world actually is."
Lookism as Epistemic Injustice
https://tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02691728.2022.2076629
