Fun Fact Friday: Welcome to "Gender, Appearance, and Social Inequality," Week 1

As promised, today is the first of many FFF's dedicated to giving you a taste of my favorite UCLA seminar, "Gender, Appearance, and Social Inequality: From Evolutionary Psychology to Feminist Theory."  As I always do on the first day of an "in person" class, today's post will overview the goals of the course, review the syllabus (posted verbatim here), and squeeze in a bit of learnin' at the end.  Here goes!

Overview of course goals:

"Gender, Appearance, and Inequality" will draw on evolutionary psychology, feminist theory, and sociology, to examine “beauty bias” – the idea that physically attractive individuals are rewarded socially (through better treatment) as well as biologically (through “good genes”). This course will take an “intersectional” approach, examining how physical appearance overlaps with other, better-known, forms of inequality such as those that result from sexism, racism, ageism, and homophobia. We will discuss different attributes of appearance that seem particularly significant in the modern American context, including skin color, facial features, hair, body shape/size, and personal presentation (i.e., fashion, make-up, etc.), examining how appearance impacts people’s lives in a number of settings, including in education, in romance, in employment, and in medical treatment. Finally, will also work to critically distinguish evolutionary drives from social forces, asking how these distinct theories explaining beauty bias complement each other.

Review of Syllabus:

In my typical seminar, I organize the course around weekly themes, as follows:

Week 1. Evolutionary Psychological Perspectives on Beauty Bias

Week 2. Sociological/Feminist Perspectives + About-Face Media Literacy Workshop

Week 3. Beauty Bias in Childhood and in Education

Week 4. Beauty Bias in Romantic Relationships  

Week 5. Beauty Bias in Employment

Week 6. Beauty Bias in Medicine

Week 7. Intersectional Perspectives on Appearance and “Eating Problems”

Week 8. Fashion, Makeup, and “Style”        

Week 9. Men’s experiences 

Week 10. Activism 

You can see the details of each week's readings and lessons on the actual syllabus, here.  On Fridays, I will cover the course material in the same order, but much more slowly!  Right now the plan is to tackle the fascinating highlights of ONE course reading or book chapter each week.  Thus, my 10-week course will be stretched out across several months.

Whenever possible I'll provide links to the actual reading.  If I'm unable to do this for technical or legal reasons, I'll do my best to illustrate the gist of it.

Good news for all: Since I'm presenting material via "Fun Fact Friday," there will be ZERO quizzes, tests, or papers!  Whoopeee!!  Attendance is optional, but enthusiasm required.  :)

My lesson posts will end with a discussion question for the "class" to tackle in comments. (Please participate!)

Bit of Learnin':

I'll spend more time exploring Chapter 2 of Stanford Professor Deborah Rhode's book The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law next week, but I wanted to kick things off with a quote:

 "... appearance discrimination ['''] compounds gender inequality by reinforcing the double standard and double bind for women.  They face greater pressure to be attractive and greater penalties for falling short.  [...]  As a consequence, women's self-worth is more dependent that men's on physical attractiveness.  Yet, even as the culture expects women to conform, it mocks the narcissism of their efforts." (Rhode, p. 44)

This passage made me instantly think of the "effortless beauty" many of us strive for.  We carefully apply makeup to look as though we aren't wearing any.  Or, when complimented on a carefully chosen outfit, we say things like "Oh, this old thing?  I just threw it on!" So here is my discussion question for you, building from this passage: 

Have you ever felt pressured to downplay the time, money, and work that you put into your appearance? How does this shape your behaviors or beauty routines?