This article by an editor at Reason.Com appears to be a fair, "let's-wait-and-see" assessment of the causes of the recent spike in bullying. That's why I'm posting it here in its entirety.Most of us are amateur social scientists to the extent that we know the difference between randomly selected subjects in a study and self-selected ones. That's the problem here.The author of the article, Robby Soave is an editor at reason.com.Explaining the spike in bullying."The Southern Poverty Law Center … [Read more...]
Lookism & the Resting Bitch Face, II.
This website is dedicated to the face— esp the disfigured, asymmetric, heroic, villainous, or foolish face. This means that the site and my blog take on some pretty interesting topics. In my blog two weeks ago, I raised the issue of the resting bitch face (RBF) and joked about choosing between a witch or a bitch face mask for Halloween. That would've meant putting frown and anger marks on one's face. Or getting a mask of one of the celebrities who claim (or others claim) to "suffer" from … [Read more...]
Cleft lip news: bullying, ‘Wonder’ movie, Cher’s retreat.
This story by Sara Newman came to my attention recently. It provides useful info for families with cleft lip and palate kids. I've added the info about Cher and her facial differences camps."Anti-bullying messages are prevalent in today’s schools, but some kids still may not understand how mocking someone for their differences can have profound effects that last well beyond the school day.“It breaks my heart,” Michelle Aftimos of Pomfret, [Md] said of the bullying her son, Kyle, 8, has received … [Read more...]
Lookism & Halloween: witch or bitch face?
It is Halloween and the time that witch faces show up at parties and at neighborhood trick-or-treat outings. All sorts of other faces show up, too—esp some representing lookism gone wild (for example, sweet faces from Disney's studios and pretty ones from Hollywood's glamor factories).Among meme-loving sophisticates, moreover, there's now the chance to put on a "resting bitch face" mask as well as a witch mask. In the last couple of years, both the New York Times and the Washington Post have … [Read more...]
Facial symmetry is sexy, but why?
Facial symmetry has been felt to be attractive, even sexy, because our DNA correlates symmetry with good health. But Stephanie Pappas reports on a recent study that calls all this into question:Despite the widespread assumption that symmetry might be a sign of good health, studies have turned up little evidence of a link between the two. A few small studies have linked facial asymmetry with some short-term health woes, like scratchy throats, but many others have found no links at all.However, … [Read more...]
Lookism: fat & body shaming (even by a Playmate).
Lookism surfaced once again with a vengeance earlier this month. During Labor Day weekend, a Playboy playmate body-shamed a woman working out at her gym. Lookism: body shaming.One of the original stories about this appeared at TheWrap: "The woman who Playboy Playmate Dani Mathers secretly photographed and body-shamed in a gym locker room is in her 70s, and she wants Mathers prosecuted to the fullest extent possible, TMZ reports.The site said the woman — whom police were unable to identify or … [Read more...]
Beauty varies by country/sex, but lookism still fuels surgeries.
As we try to fight lookism, we see one obvious factor supporting our cause. It is the fact that beauty and attractiveness vary by sex and by country. That is, men and women have different ideals regarding attractiveness as do people from different countries. (Not so commonly referenced is the factor that attractiveness ideals change over time, e.g., the 1800s, the 1920s, the 1950s, now).Most distressing, however, is the fact that western media (films, magazines, the internet, etc.) are spreading … [Read more...]