Pretty People Are Privileged

Oh, this has (unfortunately) been the case pretty much since we were living in caves.

We are probably hard-wired to prefer certain standards of beauty. By that I don't mean Angelina Jolie vs Marilyn Monroe vs Halle Berry vs whoever you think is the most beautiful woman, ever. It's that beauty is often associated with symmetry.

A person who looks more symmetrical tends to (not always) be stronger or better able to walk. When we lived in caves, that was a good reason to choose between mates. You needed someone who could help carry the kids as your family ran away from a tiger or a hostile neighboring tribe, etc.

A preference for symmetry is probably on the unconscious, gut level. Translating superior fitness into other desirable qualities is probably a bit more on the conscious level. But only a bit.

Let's say two people are interviewing for the same job. They have identical qualifications. But one of them is visibly taller than the other. Who gets hired? It's more likely to be taller applicant. This is the case even if the job is fully remote and not customer facing at all.

Don't believe me? See: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214804314000640

Also, we can often see youth as being synonymous with strength, capability, and endurance. But that's not always true in reality.

What we're hard-wired for can and does veer right into discrimination. Older people, more overweight people, shorter people, people with disabilities, neurodivergent people, and people who aren't textbook beautiful all have a steeper uphill climb.

Women often do, too, if an interviewer can't "see" a woman doing some job or other.

Let's take ageism for a moment.

In the United States, it's illegal to discriminate against someone because of their age. This covers people aged 40 and older. Yet ageism is rampant.

Companies keep just on the right side of legality by claiming they are keeping out overqualified applicants, or they want applicants who have been trained in the latest and greatest, or there's a strength requirement, or they're paying a lower salary and know someone who's used to more money will most likely leave once they find something better. Those reasons sound legit, but many older applicants can easily fulfill all of the company's requirements. Yet companies don't want to hear it.

The tech industry in particular has extremely bad ageism. See: https://www.inc.com/joe-procopio/lets-talk-about-ageism-in-tech.html

So yeah, the pretty people have advantages. And a lot of those advantages are gut-level, with no real data or science or proof behind them.

The solution? Call out this kind of discrimination wherever and whenever you see it.

Hey! we can't help it if we're pretty.

Please don't hold our prettiness against us.