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• Title:The beauty bias : the injustice of appearance in life and law / Deborah L. Rhode.
  
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• Author/Creator:Rhode, Deborah L.
  
• Published/Created:Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.
  

• Holdings

  Holdings Record Display

  • Location:LAW LIBRARY (level 3)Where is this?
    
  • Call Number: KF478 .R48 2010 (LC)
    
  • Number of Items:1
    
  • Status:Available
    

   
• Library of Congress Subjects:Women--Legal status, laws, etc.--United States.
  Beauty, Personal--United States.
  Women--Health and hygiene--United States--Sociological aspects.
  Sex discrimination against women--Law and legislation--United States.
  
• Description:xvi, 252 p. : ill ; 22 cm.
  
• Summary:"It hurts to be beautiful" has been a cliché for centuries. What has been far less appreciated is how much it hurts not to be beautiful. This book explores our cultural preoccupation with attractiveness, the costs it imposes, and the responses it demands. Beauty may be only skin deep, but the damages associated with its absence go much deeper. Unattractive individuals are less likely to be hired and promoted, and are assumed less likely to have desirable traits, such as goodness, kindness, and honesty. Three quarters of women consider appearance important to their self image and over a third rank it as the most important factor. Although appearance can be a significant source of pleasure, its price can also be excessive, not only in time and money, but also in physical and psychological health. Our annual global investment in appearance totals close to $200 billion. Many individuals experience stigma, discrimination, and related difficulties, such as eating disorders, depression, and risky dieting and cosmetic procedures. Women bear a vastly disproportionate share of these costs, in part because they face standards more exacting than those for men, and pay greater penalties for falling short. This book also explores the social, biological, market, and media forces that have contributed to appearance related problems, as well as feminism's difficulties in confronting them. It reviews why it matters. Appearance related bias infringes fundamental rights, compromises merit principles, reinforces debilitating stereotypes, and compounds the disadvantages of race, class, and gender. Yet only one state and a half dozen localities explicitly prohibit such discrimination. The book provides the first systematic survey of how appearance laws work in practice, and a compelling argument for extending their reach. It offers case histories of invidious discrimination and a plausible legal and political strategy for addressing them. Our prejudices run deep, but we can do far more to promote realistic and healthy images of attractiveness, and to reduce the price of their pursuit.
  
• Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
  
• ISBN:9780195372878 (hardback : alk. paper)
  0195372875 (hardback : alk. paper)
  
• Contents:The importance of appearance and the costs of conformity
  The pursuit of beauty
  Critics and their critics
  The injustice of discrimination
  Legal frameworks
  Strategies for change.