One hundred and fifty undergraduate students at a Southwestern university rated the attractiveness of the face, body and full, face and body of 5 male and 5 female stimuli. The subjects also rated the full, face and body stimuli on 6 social and relationship variables. These ratings were used to determine the relative influence of facial attractiveness versus body attractiveness on overall assessments of attractiveness and social and relationship variables. Both facial and body attractiveness were predictive of all the overall assessments, but face was a more powerful predictor. A second analysis related perceived similarity of attractiveness and liking. Perceived similarity of attractiveness was not a significant factor in how much the subjects indicated they liked the stimuli.

Using interviewers' ratings of respondents' physical appearance this study examined the relationship between physical attractiveness and wages treating the former as marginal to a baseline, human-capital derived equation. To test the hypotheses about the consequences of physical attractiveness alone or conditioned by other factors on earnings and wage growth we estimated wage and wage growth equations using 3 cross-sectional and 3 panel data sets derived from the Canadian Quality of Life survey. The cross-sectional estimates indicated that the effect of physical attractiveness on earnings was a plausible one and likely to be conditioned by other characteristics such as firm size, occupation, union membership, frequency of on-the-job supervision, and level of formal schooling. The 'above average' rated workers received pay premia ranging from +2.2% to 6.1% while those 'below average' received pay penalties ranging from-2.7% to -13.0% relative to the grand mean. The 'average' rated workers received pay penalties ranging from -0.7% to -3.4%. The main source of these wage differentials appears to be discrimination based on looks. The results of panel specifications also provided some support for the notion that physical attractiveness ratings were associated with differential wage growth and that the relationship between physical attractiveness and wage growth might be moderated by other individual or institutional characteristics of the workers, especially before adjustments for the lagged effects of wages were made. Overall, these results provide a moderate level of support for the thesis that physical attractiveness plays a role in the wage determination process in modern labour markets.

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(Uncorrected OCR) Abstract of thesis entitled Beauty Myth in Hong Kong submitted by Lai Hoi Van for the degree of Master of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong in February 2000 After the first and second waves of feminism, women in Western societies have the right to vote and work in public. However, in late capitalism, many scholars proclaim images of female beauty are used as a new political weapon against women's advancement. This weapon is the beauty myth. The general popularity of feminine culture of beauty and the abundance of related beauty consumption can be observed in Hong Kong. In order to find out how the beauty myth is operating in Hong Kong and whether women are the victims being hindered from social advancement because of the beauty myth, the case of Hong Kong is investigated. There are two parts of the research. The first part makes use of secondary and primary data on the positions of women in Hong Kong to construct the dominant standard of beauty. It is found that the positions of women in Hong Kong are not as advanced as women in Western developed countries in terms of work, education and family. In addition, the existence of a dominant standard of beauty can also be found in Hong Kong from analysis of beauty parlors, magazines and beauty guidebook contents. The second part of the research is an ethnography of 13 respondents who are supposed to be the victims of the beauty myth. It is discovered that they generally accept the dominant standard of beauty but negotiations and personal politics are detected in their daily encounters with the myth. They are not "cultural dopes" but express certain degrees of agency. They actively make choices under the circumstances not of their own making. In their beauty practices, they find the specific women's community and knowledge, in which pleasure is intertwined. Combining the macroscopic and the microscopic parts of research, women's pursuits of beauty should not be narrowed down to a totalitarian statement. For the advancement of women in Hong Kong, the present forms of beauty need not be abandoned. More perspectives and options in terms of beauty and other aspects of life such as work and education, have to be provided for women, as well as for men. The positions of women in education, work and family can only be advanced with the general political awareness of women and the struggle to change the structure. To advance the structure, the present ideologies of femininity and masculinity based on dualism have to be changed. Education, mass media and the present feminine communities of beauty can be viewed as the sites promoting a new political awareness. / abstract / toc / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

According to studies conducted by Mobius and Rosenblat (2003) attractive candidates are seen to be more productive in the workplace and would be rewarded for it by receiving higher remuneration than less attractive candidates who are just as qualified. The focus of this study revolves around suggestions that good looks play a major role in the workplace. In addition, Fryer and Kirby (2005) report that obese people earn less than people of average weight with the same set of skills. This study aims to determine the extent to which good looks play a role in recruitment in the workplace and assess the extent to which looks are important to young managers as opposed to older managers when recruiting employees. It also seeks to identify the extent to which looks play a role between male and female managers when recruiting staff and determine if and to what extent good looks give an interviewee an undue advantage. Lastly, it seeks to determine if and to what extent overweight candidates are discriminated against. The sample is segmented using both male and female managers in Durban as key respondents of the questionnaire. The research aims to determine if good looks play an important role in Durban, not only in recruitment in the workplace, but also in the workplace as a whole. Interesting conclusions were drawn. • 71% of the sample population agreed that good looks are based on one’s physical appearance. • 71% agreed that good looking managers have confidence in themselves. • 63% of respondents agree that managers are more tolerant of good looking people. The response overall proved to be that good looking people certainly do have anunfair advantage in the workplace. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2010.

This thesis aims to allow the meanings engendered by various black hairstyle choices to emerge as discursive texts with which to further explore issues of black identity in post-apartheid South Africa. It seeks to identify what, if any, new discursive spaces and possibilities are operational in the post-apartheid capitalist context, and how identities are moulded by, and in tum, influence these possibilities. Operating within a discourse analytic approach, this research did not intend to establish fixed and generalisable notions of identity, but by unpacking the discursive baggage attached to historically loaded subjectivities it is concerned with reflecting identity as an ongoing and reflexive project. Entailing a diverse selection of texts, the analysis includes self-generated texts (stemming from interviews, a focus group and participant observation), and public domain texts (stemming from online and print media articles). Chapters 5 - 9 constitute the textual analysis. Using a consumer hair care product as a text, chapter 5 serves as an introduction to discourses surrounding black hair as a variously constructed object. This focus is concerned, more specifically, with the construction of black hair as a 'natural' object in chapter 6. Chapter 7 examines black hair gemonies and the " problematic classification and de/classification of class and consumer identities. Discourses pertaining to the construction and positioning of gendered and sexual subjectivities are explored in chapter 8. Finally, chapter 9 is concerned with the operations of discourses as they function to construct essentialised or hybrid conceptions of identity. The implications for black identity construction in post-apartheid South Africa are discussed in chapter 10 alongside a deconstruction of the research method and researcher positioning.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Technology: Graphic Design, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2014. / The aim of this study was to investigate how images of women in the media that espouse women’s empowerment can indeed have the opposite effect and may even contribute to lowered self-esteem in women. To this end, this project is intended to explore issues such as body image and image manufacture in order to find a possible answer to the question of what is ‘real beauty’ in the South African context. A semiotic approach seeking to review the ways in which women are seen through visual communicative images was undertaken. This visual research revealed the importance of the ‘gendered gaze’ at the centre of issues that relate to self-esteem. An in-depth analysis of the literature, pertaining to self-esteem, interrogated the works of Naomi Wolf, John Berger and Susie Orbach, amongst others. This was carried out in order to understand more about how the dictates of consumerism pervade the work of the style industries. These sectors are well supported by the diet, food and cosmetic surgery industries who tend to effectively increase and add to a sense of body related insecurities. In addition, content analysis of selected South African editions of Cosmopolitan magazine was conducted. The images described represents a significant development period in the emergence of certain beauty ideals in South Africa. The British Unilever marketing campaign, The Dove Campaign For Real Beauty, was used as a base model for the applied design component of this study. In addition an action research approach was employed through a series of interviews and questionnaires directed at mostly female participants in South Africa. This method revealed that self-esteem issues have far reaching implications, affecting women of all ages. As a response to the perceived need for a South African based campaign, this research project informed the development of The Sisterhood Self-Esteem Crusade. In contrast to The Dove Campaign For Real Beauty which was created to promote increased sales of beauty products, The Sisterhood Self-Esteem Crusade’s focus is to interrogate and raise awareness of self-esteem. Underpinning this was an attempt to build confidence, cascade new ways of understanding and to propagate sense making, informed through action research, amongst South African women.

Medicalization has been discussed at length in the sociology of health and illness literature. Typically, dialogue has centered on the effects of medicalization and the process as a phenomenon in professional fields alone. This work is an attempt to study medicalization using a theoretical model, structuration, that allows for inclusion of the larger social system in understanding health system changes and to include consumers of health services in the process as active agents. The example of oral aesthetics provides an opportunity to identify the agents of change, the process of medicalization in the larger social context, and possible indicators of the phenomenon. An attempt to operationalize the complex concept of medicalization marks a move toward creating testable theoretical models for the variety of behaviors and conditions under study as medicalized. Using content analysis of professional dental journals and lay magazines and a review of system rules and resources, shifts in language use and the emergence of medical frameworks were documented to determine if a medicalization of oral aesthetics had occurred. Results show two distinct periods within the last century when oral aesthetics have been medicalized in the United States. Evidence of turn-taking behavior among the agents is noted as well as the relationship of technology and technological language to the process. A model for future testing is suggested that encompass the identified agents, the language and framework, and the elements of social context.

This research project examines the experiences of women who have undergone elective cosmetic breast surgery. Drawing from qualitative in-depth interviews with twenty four women, this study examines why these women were willing to undergo dangerous and invasive cosmetic surgery procedures to change the appearance of their breasts. It is argued that although the women exercised agency in their decision-making, their choices were severely constrained by a culture that rewards women for conforming to feminine beauty norms, and sanctions those who do not. The women’s experiences further reveal that their decisions often “cut both ways.” These women’s decisions “cut both ways,” because while the women acquired personal benefits, these came with significant physical and emotional costs. Finally, it “cuts both ways,” because while these women personally benefited, their decisions result in the reproduction of the current beauty system and uphold the unjust feminine beauty norms on which it is based. / viii, 228 leaves ; 29 cm.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Madeline Heilman’s (1983) Lack of Fit Model, which postulates why discrimination occurs in the selection of sex-typed jobs, has been applied to the interaction of applicant attractiveness. Yet recent research suggests that other appearance variables, namely sex-typed facial features, may be associated with perceptions of fit. Building upon Heilman’s 1983 model, the current study evaluated how sex-typed facial features relate to applicant selection for sex-typed fields. Undergraduate students were recruited for participation during the spring academic semester (n = 413) and data were analyzed using a 2x2x2 ANOVA. Results indicated that selection is significantly impacted by the three-way interaction of applicant sex, facial feature-type, and sex type of the applying field. Further, masculine-featured females and feminine-featured males were significantly less favored for selection within the feminine sex-typed field. Implications of these findings and the differential evaluation of male and female applicants in a feminine field are discussed.