Can any clever mumsnetters educate me on beauty privilege?

[ovlovo]

Hi all. Is this even a thing? The background to this is that I have noticed lately that many of the most high profile young-ish female writers and cultural commentators of the sort of millennial generation (a bit above and a bit below) are also often unusually attractive. I don't want to mention names as I don't want it to be that kind of thread but it does seem to me that there is some sort of beauty privilege going on here. But having said that it feels as though it is probably deeply anti-feminist and a bit woman-hatey to say so. Maybe I am noticing something that isn't there, or basing this on a small sample of people, and/or I have some weird latent idea that clever woman shouldn't also be very attractive or ... I don't know. Or maybe I'm jealous! Can anybody put me right? Is beauty privilege a thing? Thanks in advance!

There is a theory called "beauty premium" which looks at why more attractive people get paid more and I think it's generally thought amongst people who study this sort of thing that more attractive people do better or generally have it easier.

I think there have been studies about how women who were "beauties" when younger find it harder when they age and loose the advantages their looks gave them than women who had never had that advantage to start with.

This article is fairly light weight but seems to have links to research within it.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/beautiful-people-make-more-money-2014-11%3famp

As for young writers etc.... it could be that the more photogenic ones are pushed into the public eye more, as well as them being more likely to have been given any foothold in the first place.

It may also be that, having likely always been attractive they have lead a life with more doors opening and more people smiling at them from childhood onwards, which influences their personality and resilience. So they are more likely to put themselves out there in the first place. A bit like how the Eton politician types just seem to assume everything will work out fine for them, because it always has.
I've no doubt explained it really clumsily but the short answer is yes, I think it is A Thing and I don't think recognising that it is A Thing is particularly controversial so I wouldn't worry about having those thoughts. Of course, it should not in anyway be A Thing, but that's another matter.

P.s. I do appreciate there was a great deal of mass generalisation in my post. I know some very attractive people are crippled with self doubt and anxiety about their looks and some have terrible lives, and I know beauty is subjective. But the overall theory is that being more attractive affords advantages in life and the research supports the theory.

Two explanations

1. What you're describing may be a subtype of the halo effect which is a human tendency to assume that because someone has positive trait A, that they also have traits B and C.

In relation to beauty, it has been found before that beautiful people are more likely to be assumed to be of good character and so on.

2. They're using photoshop on their profile pictures next to the byline.

I think there’s been a shift (that completely passed me!) and women are more comfortable with fillers, Botox, derma planing, surgery, laser, personal trainers, cosmetic dentists etc. The red carpet routines are now commonplace.

It’s a disappointment that women are expected to spend so much time and money and energy on this, and I’ve been surprised at the lengths people go too, but it is ordinary people and women in their teens and early twenties.

It’s a long way from an eyelash curler and a Boots cucumber face mask!

I actually think it causes me problems. I do get the halo effect but beauty creates jealousy some women take an instant dislike or assume you're predatory and men make assumptions or worse become annoyed at rejection. That's a very quick summary but beauty has its ups and its downs in my experience as a quirky dark not bad looker. Very pretty doll like blondes have it even worse they get treated like children. And my stunning woc friend get treated like a trophy.

Well in this context, privilege is having any kind of inherent advantage in our social system, for want of better phrasing. People without this advantage are likely to find things harder going than those with the advantage. People with the advantage can find it incredibly difficult to understand that they even have an advantage, because they’ve never experienced not having it.

So I guess whether beauty privilege is A Thing or not depends on the interpretation of whether being conventionally beautiful confers advantage in society or not. Whilst I absolutely accept the points made above that beauty can be a double edged sword, personally I believe that absolutely yes beauty privelige is A Thing. I also think there’s a closely linked privilege in youth.

I’d also agree beauty, in both males and females, does have an advantage, but it also has disadvantages, and I think more for women than men.

Sadly other women can be bitchy, bullying, rejecting, and men can be belittling (she’s attractive so she must be thick).

Overall though I think for most (but not all) the advantages outweighs the disadvantages, but it’s human nature, as humans we prize beauty in both men ans women, but we also prize intelligence, effort and results, and many other things. No one says an Olympian needs to be attractive, or a Nobel winner,

So yes, many attributes humans have give them privilege. Be it looks, strength, intelligence, perseverance. You cannot isolate one and say it’s not ok to prize this. Well you can, but it’s not going to get you any where, because it will always be prized. It had since time began.

I don’t understand the comment that beautiful women find it more difficult to age. In my experience usually beautiful women remain beautiful, irrelevant of their age, unless they change their appearance drastically, it feels like people want to think they find it difficult, so they get some form of punishment for ever being beautiful in the first place.

This is a thing. We already know that large company CEOs are an average of 6 feet, while the average male is 5ft10.5.
This is an extension of that in women.

Except height is pretty stable throughout adulthood, beauty standards for women are very set to a short time period.

Nope I don’t buy it.

Seems like more of the MRA nonsense which libfems have been duped by.

A beautiful woman is not privileged. She still suffers the same patriarchal oppression as all women. The concept of beauty privilege is yet another way to divide and conquer. Saying that you have more power in the world because men are more likely to want to have sex with you doesn’t add up for me. That is not genuine power and privilege. It is also fleeting and requires you to be objectified. Beautiful women are not a ruling class.

Beauty privilege is a means of silencing women and preventing their awareness of sexism.

I think successful people have better access to advice about maximising their appearance. Also, success and feeling positive make you look better!

The actress Judy Cornwall, Hyacinth's sister in Keeping up appearances, was deliberately not very attractive on screen. When interviewed she was like a different woman. That has to be the difference between grooming and character in the role.

I saw a phrase this morning that i'm reminded of now. Something about being the masters favourite dog is still having a master, and being a dog...

I don't think OP is suggesting that beautiful people have charmed lives and can opt out of the patriarchy! Just that being physically unattractive can be an obstacle which beautiful people don't face.

Here's a little case study.

My sister and I are close in age, and look similar, but the genetic lottery gave her multiple small advantages which add up to her being the pretty version of me, and me being the drab version of her. We both got several qualifications and started professional careers, she married a very successful man and was able to be a SAHM for 2 decades before resuming work on her own terms, I had multiple failed relationships and am the breadwinner in my marriage. It's not as simple as the pretty one gets the guy; as PP have said there are multiple subtle ways in which your self esteem and sense of value in life are shaped by who people's reactions tell you you are. My confidence in my ability to solve problems is higher than my DSis's, for instance. It's played out in interesting ways, but the net benefit has been in line with the looks weighting, I believe.

I wonder if it's often the other way around. That is, a fairly "average" (for want of a better word) looking woman becomes successful and suddenly has access to better haircuts, style advice, a makeup artist (or team of them!) etc.
I'm currently pretty average and anonymous, but if I was suddenly thrust into the public eye and simultaneously given access to a team of beauty pros I would definitely feel the pressure to make use of them and look my "best" in a way that I'm not currently bothered about.
(Also, obviously there are successful women who are also blessed with natural beauty - I'm not suggesting they're all "average" looking without help!)

@picklemewalnuts

I don't think OP is suggesting that beautiful people have charmed lives and can opt out of the patriarchy! Just that being physically unattractive can be an obstacle which beautiful people don't face.

Sure. Like lacking intelligence, or physical strength or many other human attributes is a obstacle that people who don’t have them face as obstacles.

As said, there are many human qualities prized by society, Beauty is only one, and is prized in both men and women. And has been since forever. Ancient queens or kings who lived years ago had it written about them if they had physical beauty, or if they had other attributes.

It’s not a new thing, not wil it ever go away.

I think it's just old fashioned sexism. The media aren't interested in profiling interesting new women writers unless they are also young and pretty. I think youth is more the thing at stake in your example tbh, although of course you rarely see an exciting new writer profiled who happens to be fat either.

I don't know about beauty privilege but I do know a lot of men are much nicer to women they find attractive than those they don't.

@IDontMindMarmite

I saw a phrase this morning that i'm reminded of now. Something about being the masters favourite dog is still having a master, and being a dog...

Yep

I don't know about beauty privilege but I do know a lot of men are much nicer to women they find attractive than those they don't

Of course, and a lot of women are much nicer to men they are attracted to than those who they aren’t.

Where are all the beautiful young women CEOs, high court judges, heads of state?

The corridors of power are not teeming with attractive 20 year old women.

And men who are nicer to women they find attractive turn nasty pretty quickly if a woman doesn’t respond in the desired manner.

I think, as a pp said, it has advantages and disadvantages. When I was slim and considered reasonably conventionally attractive, I got a lot of attention from men, they were often very helpful and quite protective and I got given things for free fairly often. But I also had to deal with the negative side of that attention- being groped, followed, harassed, etc. Now that I’m fat and a mum, I’m reasonably invisible to strange men, and while I don’t get the benefits, I don’t have to deal with downsides either, so it balances out.

I can’t say I ever got the “other women are bitchy to pretty women” thing but maybe that’s because I was only quite pretty, as opposed to stunningly beautiful.

Didn't one of the supermodels (can't remember who) do a TED talk on the genetic lottery. Quick search later... it was Cameron Russell

www.ted.com/talks/cameron_russell_looks_aren_t_everything_believe_me_i_m_a_model?language=en

I do believe that good looking people definitely reap additional benefits, assuming they're not also complete arseholes.

I think the term "beauty privilege" is inherently sexist.
If it was termed "attractiveness privilege" then yes, absolutely it exists.
Prison sentences are affected by how attractive the defendant is
www.google.com/amp/s/www.thelawproject.com.au/insights/attractiveness-bias-in-the-legal-system%3ffbclid=IwAR3VNWtyusGFRK6jnhAYanJ4euyBJ16rpIUFYI4aV1DhyWjB45DjnBUx1JQ&format=amp

Attractive employees earn more
www.payscale.com/career-news/2012/03/beauty-and-salary

scout gave a good explanation of some reasons why

@Bluntness100

I don't know about beauty privilege but I do know a lot of men are much nicer to women they find attractive than those they don't

Of course, and a lot of women are much nicer to men they are attracted to than those who they aren’t.

Yes, that's no doubt true. Although in my experience there is a certain kind of man who will hold the door open for a pretty woman and let it slam in the face of the less attractive woman behind her. Maybe women do the equivalent to men but I don't know.