Looksism 2.0

The Urban Anthropologist resides near a performing arts high school whose students often stop in the local Starbucks on the way home. During an extended period of unemployment there was an opportunity to make the following observation: There are no ugly students in that school.

It doesn't seem logical that only attractive people would want to enter the performing arts; this has never been true in the past. However, with the advent of advanced acne products, parents willing to provide nose jobs and other procedures as Sweet Sixteen or Quincinera gifts, and the increasing use of hair color and other such things by younger and younger users, the standard of "average-looking" has definitely gone up. Women's magazines publish articles and surveys talking about the increase of image anxiety among younger and younger females all the time. One wonders where -- other than the media -- this is coming from.

Is it possible that auditions for such a school are only granted to attractive prospects? Enquiring minds want to know.

The baristas could not recall seeing unattractive students from that school. One laughed and asked "Ever see an ugly person in a Starbucks?" which prompted the Urban Anthropologist to recall all the Starbucks employees that have swiped her gold card. Not a single one of them were less than attractive or cute.

Is it the goal of certain companies and institutions to eradicate less than presentable people from public life? Maybe Jessica Simpson should take this on in a future season (if she has one) of her MTV series The Price of Beauty.

An old friend who has been without television for a while recently had occasion to watch a soap opera on an HD set while waiting for her car to be serviced. She was shocked at how the actors looked. We briefly discussed what this will mean in the long term: Will the entertainment industry finally have to acknowledge that actors do eventually get older or will they toss them out at increasingly younger ages as their minor wrinkles and other flaws are highlighted on HDTV? How would they justify the latter in a world where people live longer than ever?

When Boomers decided as teens not to trust anyone over 30, they had no idea what they started.