So as we all know here “lookism” is becoming a more prominent issue. When I say prominent, I mean it in the sense that it’s becoming more of a widespread issue, I’m not claiming that it’s an issue that gets much public recognition. However, that could certainly change in the future.
As we all know “cancel culture” has been a widely discussed issue lately. Even recent presidents have weighed in on the issue, and gave their thoughts surrounding it. However, regardless of anyone’s opinions on it, it seems like it’s here to stay for the foreseeable future.
Now there have been times where people have managed to steer the “cancel culture mob mentality” towards certain issues. For example, take the instance where trolls somewhat managed to convince the media and general public that the “OK” hand gesture was a symbol for white supremacy.
Now I know what you’re thinking. How does this relate to the topic of “lookism”? Well, if enough outrage is pointed towards activities that perpetuate lookism, perhaps these things will get cancelled and the public will start to take the issue more seriously. In fact, this task would be even easier than trolling people and bastardizing an innocent gesture, since these activities already raise some concern regarding many prominent social issues.
Take beauty pageants for example. A contest that is literally described as “judging and ranking the physical attributes of contestants”. Sounds like lookism to me, and it also sounds like something that is not inclusive at all. In fact, don’t contests like these perpetuate unrealistic beauty standards that ultimately have a damaging effect on the mental health of young girls? Throughout history, has the practice of literally judging others based on their appearance ever lead to anything socially and morally just? What about transgender individuals (biologically male) who want to participate in female beauty pageants?
Now think about all sorts of other activities. Prom night promotes the concept of heteronormativity when the organizers choose a prom king and queen. What about people who discriminate based on looks in the workplace?
While lookism might not yet be a big “hot-button” issue, by calling out these practices through the lens of other prominent societal issues, we can indirectly increase awareness of lookism and bring it into mainstream discussion. Maybe this could even cause a shift in public sentiment towards incels, since the main problem that holds us back is now taken seriously by the majority of the population, and seen as a valid point to our failure.
As we all know “cancel culture” has been a widely discussed issue lately. Even recent presidents have weighed in on the issue, and gave their thoughts surrounding it. However, regardless of anyone’s opinions on it, it seems like it’s here to stay for the foreseeable future.
Now there have been times where people have managed to steer the “cancel culture mob mentality” towards certain issues. For example, take the instance where trolls somewhat managed to convince the media and general public that the “OK” hand gesture was a symbol for white supremacy.
Now I know what you’re thinking. How does this relate to the topic of “lookism”? Well, if enough outrage is pointed towards activities that perpetuate lookism, perhaps these things will get cancelled and the public will start to take the issue more seriously. In fact, this task would be even easier than trolling people and bastardizing an innocent gesture, since these activities already raise some concern regarding many prominent social issues.
Take beauty pageants for example. A contest that is literally described as “judging and ranking the physical attributes of contestants”. Sounds like lookism to me, and it also sounds like something that is not inclusive at all. In fact, don’t contests like these perpetuate unrealistic beauty standards that ultimately have a damaging effect on the mental health of young girls? Throughout history, has the practice of literally judging others based on their appearance ever lead to anything socially and morally just? What about transgender individuals (biologically male) who want to participate in female beauty pageants?
Now think about all sorts of other activities. Prom night promotes the concept of heteronormativity when the organizers choose a prom king and queen. What about people who discriminate based on looks in the workplace?
While lookism might not yet be a big “hot-button” issue, by calling out these practices through the lens of other prominent societal issues, we can indirectly increase awareness of lookism and bring it into mainstream discussion. Maybe this could even cause a shift in public sentiment towards incels, since the main problem that holds us back is now taken seriously by the majority of the population, and seen as a valid point to our failure.
