This dissertation takes an employee-centred approach to explore the power that employers have to regulate the physical appearance of their employees in the Canadian workplace. Specifically, it analyzes the limitations and potential of existing human rights instruments for protecting the appearance interests of employees in Canada, with primary focus on British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. Appearance matters a great deal in the North American context. Scholars of sociology have established that as a social and identity marker, as well as a powerful means of expression, appearance should be considered as fundamental to an employee’s identity, sense of self, and personhood. In particular, these studies show that appearance choices (such as tattoos, piercings, grooming practices, and clothes) are important to an employee’s sense of self; they are therefore worthy of legal protections. Yet, under the current state of law in Canada, workplace appearance regulation is legal, with limits for the most part dependent on whether or not employees are unionized. This dissertation takes up the question of how to address employees’ appearance in the workplace as a human rights issue by offering two frameworks of analysis—the anti-discrimination approach and the fundamental rights at work approach. Physical appearance is not a protected ground of discrimination in Canada. As such, approaching the question of workplace appearance policies and practices through an anti-discrimination lens offers some considerable challenges for employees in a private employment relationship in most Canadian provinces. In Quebec, the Quebec Charter of human rights and freedoms protects a wide range of fundamental rights and freedoms applicable to private employment relationships, including the right to dignity, the right to privacy, and the right to freedom of expression. Quebec employees have successfully raised these rights in order to challenge workplace appearance regulation. Quebec employers are thus more limited regarding appearance policies than their counterparts in the rest of Canada, because of the fundamental rights at work framework, which offers a balanced approach to employers’ and employees’ competing interests. With a careful review of both frameworks, I argue that legislative changes could enable shifts in cultures of work, and I conclude with some modest proposals to achieve better protections for employees broadly, and more specifically with respect to the importance of appearance in the workplace. / Graduate / 2021-08-14

The objective of this study was to evaluate parents’ preferences of the appearance and attire of orthodontists. Six subjects were asked to pose for photographs wearing various combinations of attire (casual, scrubs, white coat, formal), hairstyle and nametag. Survey participants were presented with choice sets and asked to select the most and least preferred provider photographs. A total of 77 parents of orthodontic patients participated in the computer-based survey. The results indicated that there were significant differences due to provider sex (P = 0.0013), provider age (P < .0001), dress (P < .0001), nametag (P = 0.0065) and hair (P < .0001). The most preferred providers were the younger female and the older male. Formal attire or scrubs was the most preferred style of dress. There was also a preference for the use of a nametag and for the provider to have his/her hair in a controlled style.

This thesis explores the cultural meanings attached to the visible appearance of the body and its parts in eighteenth-century understanding. It is situated within historical scholarship concerned with the embodied display of ‘politeness’ and the relationship between the body and categories of social difference. The research draws upon a range of popular literature, including conduct books, popular medical advice books, midwifery manuals and advice guides. Chapter one reveals the way that contemporaries conceptualised the relationship between the individual body and society through investigation of various aspects of abdominal experience. Chapter two illustrates how the appearance of the skin was thought to convey identity information about an individual’s health, temperament, character, gender, class and race. Chapter three then continues by exploring similar themes with respect to the face. The next two chapters focus on the corporeal display of gender; while chapter four argues that changing male and female hairstyles reflected shifting gender mores, chapter five evidences how female breasts were seen as visible markers of sexual difference. Chapter six examines how class informed how the hands were employed and displayed by different social actors. Finally, chapter seven looks at how ‘politeness’ informed how the legs were trained to enact various cultural performances. In this thesis it is argued that in the eighteenth century popular authors sought to uncover how bodies worked by appropriating anatomical models of examining the body through scrutiny of its parts. Yet, it will be demonstrated that discussion of the body’s parts within popular literature was distinctive because it reflected readers’ growing preoccupation with how the body, as a social actor, conveyed information about individual identity. The thesis contributes to present scholarship by detailing a range of meanings which were attached to different parts of the body that have previously been elided by historians. Additionally, it demonstrates that discursive dismemberment, though located in eighteenth-century discourses on the body, represents a historically reflective and methodologically useful mode of examining the lived body in the eighteenth century.

Magister Artium - MA / In a developing country like South Africa plagued by historical racial scars, attitudes pertaining to race, ethnicity and language, can be described as considerably problematic. Images used for advertising (ads) and the media form part of the foundation through which audience’s structure ideas about the normality and fluidity of race and ethnicity. Physical appearance is especially important in the media and influences the minds of many young people, especially young women and contributes to the way they feel about themselves. This magnitude of influence reinforces the importance of analyzing these images and assessing the implications it has on the South African society. Through a systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA), this thesis explores the way in which earlier (2004) and more recent ads (2015) by Brutal Fruit have characterized and (re)characterised the ‘ideal’ South African woman. Particular attention is placed on the concept of racialized bodies- skin colour, hair, clothing and body types of the models employed during both periods when the ads were published. The language(s) used in the ads are analysed which creates a platform for engaging in issues related to transformation and inclusivity in society, as it is performed in the ads. The literature focuses on the revolution of South African society, group representation, race and the female body. The findings suggest that alcohol adverts largely use semiotics that reinforce antifeminist rhetoric. However, in more recent ads there is an attempt to compensate for the roles that have become available to women in the public sphere. Women are shown to have more agency in that they are depicted in leading roles and the narratives created about them relate that they are now in charge of their own sexuality. The positive depiction of alcohol especially in relation to masculinity affects the number of people who consume it. Alcohol consumption is linked to masculinity and power, however, in society women are still expected to remain feminine. This is especially relevant for women who aim to challenge dominant stereotypes about their position in society- and the use of alcohol is an avenue that is used to achieve this. However, women consume ‘pink drinks’ and not beer because ciders are still considered to be feminine by society, which is why many men refuse to consume it. Finally, a true representation of real women in society needs to become more popular in the media and a fresh approach to advertising alcohol especially to women needs to be re-evaluated because these ads could be positive for women instead of reiterating the usual derogatory stereotypes that society holds about women who do not conform to dominant patriarchal conventions.

Compiled by: David P. Speech/y in fulfilment of an MSc(MED) degree Department of Physiology University of the Witwatersrand Medical School Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA. / Our study comprised of a two fold investigation into i. the comparing of physiological function in a performance-matched (running 42.2km) group of females (n=10) and males (n=10), and ii. the analysis of the performance changes over four different distances. The female group ran an average of 3:36 ± 0:42 hours, and the male group an average of 3:39 ± 0:47 hours for a standard marathon. After matching the two groups we measured physical characteristics, maximal aerobic capacity (V02max), fitness level (lactate accumulation), energy cost of running (running economy), and muscle function (isokinetic dynamometry). The female group had a significantly lower (P<0.05) relative V02max (48.3 ± 2.8mlQ2• min'1 • kg"1 vs 51.3 ± 3.3ml02*min'1-kg'1) , lower absolute peak muscle torque for quadriceps at all angular velocities investigated (60-; 180-; and 240°-sec'1), but only at 240° • sec'1 for the hamstrings (29.0 ± 15.1Nm vs 46.6 ± 15.3Nm). However, females had lower (P<0.05) relative peak torques (expressed relative to the lean thigh volume) than males only for the quadriceps group of muscles at 180°-sec'1 (12.19 ± 4.75Nm-2'1 vs 18.87 ± 7.01Nm*l"1) The females had a greater (P<0.05) percentage body fat than the males (22.0 ± 3.2% vs 16.1 ± 3.0%). / IT2018

While it's clear that the objectification of women is a prominent feature of Western society, it is far less clear what it actually means to be objectified. Philosophers, feminist scholars and psychologist agree that objectification involves a denial of humanity, however, the nature of this dehumanization has yet to be explained. Although existing research provides evidence that objectified women are associated both with objects and animals, no research has examined the conditions under which women are likely to be dehumanized by one form or another. Here, I propose that animalization, characterized by an association with animals, occurs when a woman is portrayed in a sexualized manner. In contrast, objectification, characterized by an association with objects, occurs when a woman is portrayed with a focus on her appearance. Two studies were designed to test this hypothesis. Study 1 found that when participants were primed with an image of a sexualized woman, they were more likely to animalistically dehumanize her (which is consistent with likening to animals). Conversely, when participants were primed with an image of a "beautified" woman, they were more likely to mechanistically dehumanize her (which is consistent with likening to objects). Study 2 attempted to make this link more directly by measuring implicit associations between women, objects, and animals as a function of the image prime, but failed to find the hypothesized result. This research provides the first empirical evidence that different portrayals of women (either sexualized or with a focus on appearance) implicate different forms of dehumanization.

Olika forskningsdiscipliner har i över 60 år studerat attribution. Dock finns ett kunskapsglapp då de flesta studier har gjorts på vuxna människor. Undersökningen koncentrerades därför till att studera attribution hos förskolebarn och söka reda på deras spontana reaktioner på sagofigurer och porträtt, samt deras bedömning av olika egenskaper hos dem. Deltagare var 16 förskolebarn, varav 9 flickor, vilka intervjuades i 45 minuter var. En innehållsanalys genomfördes vilken resulterade i olika teman och kategorier, därefter genomfördes en separat analys för barnens bedömning av tjocka respektive smala personer. Huvudresultatet visade att kategorier som var kopplade till utseendet var mer betydande än andra kategorier, samt att tendensen att föredra smala personer över tjocka påvisades. Resultaten diskuterades utifrån olika synvinklar på hur dessa resultat speglar samhället, och utifrån olika teorier om utveckling, samt vad detta kan tänkas ha för inverkan på både individen och samhället.

Realistic models of landscapes are frequently needed for 3D renderings, VFX work or video games. However, modelling landscapes can be a complicated and labour-intensive task, and for this reason many algorithms have been proposed to automate the process. Among the many possible ways to create a synthetic landscape, the most common one is to simulate the various types of erosions (e.g. erosion caused by glaciers and rivers) that create real eroded landscapes, like the Grand Canyon. Many solutions have been published to simulate such terrain erosion processes in computer graphics. However the authors usually only focus on recreating a landscape at geometry level, and ignore the shading level. But surface colours and textures that match the coarse geometric features created by the erosion simulation are also essential ingredients for a believable result. And obtaining detailed surface textures by running a simulation that is able to catch all the micro-details involved is usually technically infeasible due to the involved complexity. The method that we propose attempts to get around this barrier by applying suitable detail shaders to the results of a coarse-grid erosion simulation. Specifically, we will work with a dictionary of pre-generated shaders for landscape appearance: these will be both "plain" colour...

Various rendering techniques often use different approaches to the same aspects of the image synthesis process, mainly due to their complexity and constant development. Excluding global illumination algorithms, appearance descriptions are key distinguishing factors between the rendering systems. These descriptions might include BRDF models, support for spectral color representation, and even integration of advanced phenomena, such as fluores- cence. Unfortunately, as there are no standardized implementations of these features, their computations might not be completely accurate, which may result in their incorrect representation. This thesis describes an evaluation suite that methodically tests rendering algorithms based on their appearance reproduction capabilities. The core of the suite is a set of scenes that test five specific appearance phenomena - polarization, GGX reflectance, fluorescence, iridescence and the overall spectral accuracy. Each test case scenario contains as few scenes as possible while maximizing the number of covered aspects of the tested feature. For the user's convenience, we wrap the scenes inside an automatic workflow that runs the specified test case scenarios and displays the results. As a correctness metric, we provide manually verified reference images that are considered to...

BACKGROUND: Transgender women suffer a great deal of self-reported anxiety and concern about their facial appearance as they may readily be identified by observers as "trans" when they would prefer to be interpreted solely as women. Little is known about the psychological distress that transgender individuals experience in their decision to undergo major aesthetic plastic surgery as a result of their appearance concern. As such, it remains unknown whether transgender individuals experience improved appearance anxiety and a greater quality of life following facial feminization surgery. AIMS: The objective of this study is to determine, using the Derriford Appearance Scale 24, whether any improvement can be seen among transgender patients in their level of appearance anxiety following facial feminization surgery. We also aim to look at whether additional improvements can be seen in the quality of life of transgender patients. METHODS: A prospective study was conducted on patients undergoing facial feminization surgery. The outcome measure used was the Derriford Appearance Scale 24. The Derriford Appearance Scale 24 was given to transgender patients to fill out at the end of their pre-operative visit before their schedule facial feminization surgery. The scale was then also administered three weeks following surgery and three months following surgery, via the Internet. RESULTS: Twenty-four patients were enrolled. Of these, fourteen patients completed at least one of the surveys, post-operatively; twelve patients completed all three surveys. Of those patients who completed at least two out of the three surveys, scores revealed that 85% of transgender patients displayed higher levels of psychological distress when completing the first survey, preoperatively, than in subsequent post-operative surveys. CONCLUSIONS: Transgender individuals enrolled in the study showed decreased levels of distress both three weeks after surgery and three months after surgery. These results were promising in displaying amelioration of appearance anxiety following facial feminization surgery. Though results show increased quality of life, the degree of impact that gender confirming facial features may have on quality of life for transgender patients has yet to be assessed.