Going For The Look

The Cardigan family has made a name for themselves in the sweater industry. CARDWARE, Inc. is growing and has opened ten new stores nationwide under the name “The Sporty One.” The slogan the store advertises its sports ware with is “You don’t have to be an athlete to look and feel like one.” CARDWARE, Inc. wants to employ slender, young employees, so that the clothing line can keep with the sporty image. They placed an ad online advertising that they wanted to hire an experienced salesperson, in retail sales or marketing, who is energetic, youthful, athletic, and able to “sport” the clothing lines of The Sporty One with style. Petunia Rotunda, a middle aged, slightly plump woman, who has five years of retail experience working in a garden shop. Noah Dahl, a college graduate in marketing, a slender racquetball player who has not had any retail experience. Petunia and Noah

Hollister Co. is an American lifestyle brand. Appearance plays an important role in the success of candidates during the Hollister Co. interview process. They enforce a strict dress code, which they expect their employees to abide by. Hollister’s theme is a “beach vibe”. The employees must wear contemporary Hollister style clothing, that fits their theme. On a daily basis the attire is assessed to make sure that staff are wearing that seasons colors.The female employees must have the “beach babe” look, which

When working at Wal-Mart in Minneapolis, Ehrenreich, and her co-workers, have a very strict dress code. “No nose or other facial jewelry, we learn; earrings must be small and discreet, not dangling; no blue jeans except on Friday, and then you have to pay $1 for the privilege of wearing them” (145). Uniformity is clearly happening here. Employees are forced to look presentable in Wal-Mart’s opinion of presentable.

In the society we all live in today, where outside beauty is emphasized more than inner beauty, businesses have realized how to utilize that view to their own benefit They have looked at trends and realized that it is profitable to hire those with outer beauty. However, since certain businesses are only hiring certain ethnicities in order to project that image, it has been questioned whether these businesses are discriminating. In the article, Going for the Look, but Risking Discrimination, it says that " hiring attractive people is not necessarily illegal, but discriminating on the basis of age, sex, and ethnicity is." The companies cannot help it that only certain types of people fit their marketing image and their hiring strategies are

Today’s jobseeker has tough competition. In our text book readings “Judging by the Cover” (657-658), Bonny Gainley begins the argument of the paper by stating that job seekers must be careful when they make personal choices that initially will affect their chances of entering the workplace. People have a need to be accepted by others just the way they are, in the same way people continue to say, “you can’t judge a book by its cover”, yet people do based solely on their personal appearances. That goes for businesses as well, “[t]he bottom line is that businesses exist to make money. Whether it seems fair or not, most employers do care about the personal appearances of the people they hire because those people represent the business to its customers”.

Along with people who look good wearing the clothes, companies also want people who will bring the look even farther. These companies want the people they hire to expand the image that the consumers see. They can do this by the person alone. It could be their skin tone or their bone structure, but the brands want

Steven Greenhouse, writer for New York Times, states in his article “Going for the Look,but Risking Discrimination”, that companies are hiring people based only on how attractive they look and are risking discrimination because of it. Greenhouse then supports his claim by giving examples, like L’Oreal, Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, and W Hotel. He next proceeds to show that hiring based off looks can result in lawsuits and discrimination. Finally, he informs that stores have hired good looking people who are incompetent rather than hiring someone who is not that good looking but is experienced. Greenhouse’s purpose is to show that although it is not illegal to only hire attractive people, it might not be morally correct to just hire on looks.

During Honest Works first chapter “Everyday ethics at work” our author’s discuss the idea of appearance discrimination (P: 25-29). The section deliberates the idea that employees are selected based on their physical attractiveness. The cosmetology industry makes its bread and butter on telling women they are not “pretty” enough; therefore, exasperating the problem. Should cosmetic industries be held at least partially responsible for the perpetuation of this form of discrimination?

“We all know that appearance matters, but the price of prejudice can be steeper than we often assume” (Washington1.) Published originally in the Washington Post on May 23,2010 by Deborah L. Rhode. Rhode the Professor of law and legal director at Stanford University in her essay “Why Looks Are The Last Bastion Of Discrimination,” argues that an individual's physical appearance is one of the few qualities of their personal identity that other people are legally within their rights to discriminate against. Rhode states her thesis clearly explaining the forthcoming reasons she will offer to uphold her position. Rhode believes that discriminating against individuals based on their appearance is wrong, and is often overlooked in many environments such as the workforce. Many think it is crucial that discrimination on looks is banned in workplaces, schools, and most other organizations.

Wolf discusses the effect that these standards are having on women in the workplace. A woman’s beauty, or lack of it, can be used against her. In 1986, Mechelle Vinson lost a sexual harassment case. “Vinson was young and ‘beautiful’ and carefully dressed. The district court ruled that her appearance counted against her.” (Wolf 38) “In Hopkins v. Price-Waterhouse, Ms. Hopkins was denied a partnership because she needed to learn to ‘walk more femininely, talk more femininely, dress more femininely,’ and ‘wear makeup’.” She brought in more business than any other employee. (Wolf 39)

while having attractive employees can help make the store and its image more appealing, the discriminative undertones may make the whole thing worthless. the whole idea of this policy is to hire attractive people over those considered unattractive. Sometimes, the attractiveness of potential employees is based on a specific image that the company they work for want to project, and that image usually has a specific

The stores attracted customers with “physical attractiveness” of the store employees and quite clearly there is an argument of unconscious bias in the practice of hiring employees based on physical attractiveness as considered by Shahani-Denning (2003) in the study. Although numerous lawsuits under employment legislation were filed, most of them were based on conscious discrimination and quite interestingly there are no laws governing discriminatory practices under hiring based on “physical attractiveness”. However the brand image of Abercrombie and Fitch is dependent on the outward projection of physical appearance and hence there is a rationale for the argument of hiring physically attractive store staff to attract more

“Judging by the Cover,” is an essay written in 2003 by Bonny Gainley who is a consultant, speaker, and author. It originally appeared in an opinion column in a Colorado newspaper. Although non-discriminatory, she believes that people project messages about themselves with their appearance. This essay seems to be intended for recent graduates and young job seekers. The main point that she tries to explain to the reader is that even though our family and friends may accept us for who we are, employers may not.

Lookism is a more and more pressing problem for companies and corporations, that strive to create an equal opportunities work space. The definition of lookism is “bias or discrimination against individuals on the basis of appearance, often unconscious.” This discrimination refers to both people who are not perceived as attractive and those who have to deal with the stereotypes connected to being exceptionally good-looking.

The article “Beauty and the Labor Market” by Daniel S. Hamermesh and Jeff E. Biddle examines the economics of discrimination in the labour market based on looks and the relationship that exists between beauty and labour market earnings. Analyzing, results from several studies, data from various empirical research and surveys; the article identifies the source of earnings differentials related to looks in six distinct and detailed sections.