Wednesday, July 24, 2019

2019 - Day 205/160 - Wednesday...Lookism...

Better living through chemistry (the tag line for DuPont) was my mantra for several years, beginning in '69 and going on for a couple decades. Interesting that this pharmaceutical journal advertisement was making the rounds on Facebook today. I was in desperate need of being able to 'sleep through the night,' (wink, wink), and I did on several occasions. I became a charter member of my college fraternity in either 1971 or 1972, and my initiation (the hazing part) included a lost week of sensory deprivation. We were way ahead of our time; the other folks were busy drinking beer and mixing trash cans full of Hawaiian Punch and Everclear, but we were the advanced frat on campus. We were WAY ahead of our time, and it was a blast. I am somewhat surprised that I can remember any of it. but I can, and I hope I never forget it. It is what fun was1

Lookism -- Noun. prejudice or discrimination based on physical appearance and especially physical appearance believed to fall short of societal notions of beauty. As a teacher, Kim's response to recent studies showing that attractive students receive better grades was to try to be vigilant against her own possible lookism.

Did You Know? There are a lot of -isms in the English language but most people overlook lookism. It refers to the prejudice or discrimination people have toward others because of their appearances. People first used the word in the last 1970s in reference to how people were viewing others who were heavier set. Today the panorama of lookism extends from the overly beautiful actor or actress to the homely child. Economists, sociologists, and psychologists alike pay close attention to the lookism that occurs in everyday life and examine how it affects people and society as a whole. I didn't know this was a thing, but I guess it is.

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