3 ms·

Could be evidence of matriarchy. If women outnumber men in HR departments and at school, being pleasing to a woman's eye would be helpful in advancing through

Could be evidence of matriarchy. If women outnumber men in HR departments and at school, being pleasing to a woman's eye would be helpful in advancing through life more so than being pleasing to men.

gizajob 3y ago
For quite a while I’ve been making an (admittedly fairly troll-ish) argument at my university’s philosophy classes that the whole “smash the patriarchy” movement might overlook that we actually live in a matriarchy, and this is just what it imperceptibly looks like. The argument was slightly more straightforward to make in the UK when we had a great-grandmother as head of state and a female head of government, however.
- deleted 3y ago
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hnbad 3y ago
Except there's no data for that. I do however recall stats that "physically attractive" men are generally treated favorably by other men and despite decades of feminist activism we still have men disproportionately (relative to the general population) represented in key decision makers (unless you consider "head of HR" equivalent to a C-level position). There's certainly a "look" to many high income career paths and being conventionally attractive (though not necessarily "pretty" - high earners in business rarely look like models) is a factor. If the effect is stronger for men than for women this could also support the more established notion that there are more social expectations on women to "look the part", i.e. wear makeup and "the right clothing" (which covers a much wider gamut than what is expected from men, which depending on white collar career path is either a casual suit or t-shirt and jeans/khakis). Attractiveness alone is not a guarantee for higher status and may in some cases even have the opposite effect by drawing unwanted sexual attention from male superiors or coworkers.
verisimi 3y ago
Structural sexism

Could be evidence of matriarchy. If women outnumber men in HR departments and at school, being pleasing to a woman's eye would be helpful in advancing through life more so than being pleasing to men.

gizajob 3y ago

For quite a while I’ve been making an (admittedly fairly troll-ish) argument at my university’s philosophy classes that the whole “smash the patriarchy” movement might overlook that we actually live in a matriarchy, and this is just what it imperceptibly looks like. The argument was slightly more straightforward to make in the UK when we had a great-grandmother as head of state and a female head of government, however.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

hnbad 3y ago

Except there's no data for that. I do however recall stats that "physically attractive" men are generally treated favorably by other men and despite decades of feminist activism we still have men disproportionately (relative to the general population) represented in key decision makers (unless you consider "head of HR" equivalent to a C-level position). There's certainly a "look" to many high income career paths and being conventionally attractive (though not necessarily "pretty" - high earners in business rarely look like models) is a factor. If the effect is stronger for men than for women this could also support the more established notion that there are more social expectations on women to "look the part", i.e. wear makeup and "the right clothing" (which covers a much wider gamut than what is expected from men, which depending on white collar career path is either a casual suit or t-shirt and jeans/khakis). Attractiveness alone is not a guarantee for higher status and may in some cases even have the opposite effect by drawing unwanted sexual attention from male superiors or coworkers.

verisimi 3y ago

Structural sexism