MIRROR, MIRROR: THE IMPORTANCE OF LOOKS IN EVERYDAY LIFE
Elaine Hatfield and Susan Sprecher
Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1986.
446 pp.
In popular literature, we have many sayings about beauty's being in the eye of the beholder, being a blessing or a curse, or a requisite for true happiness. Television presents a daily diet of beautiful people engaged in emotionally charged episodes that are supposed to resemble real life taken to some exponential power. It is not an accident that Linda Evans and Robert Redford are the models of what American women and men would like to look like; they are considered beautiful people whose lives are imagined to be as exciting as the roles they play on screen. Is it true that physical attractiveness is so important in ones life? The answer is, yes - on the surface.
"The evidence is clear," note authors Elaine Hatfield and Susan Sprecher in their new book Mirror, Mirror: The Importance of Looks in Everyday Life. "America is possessed by a culture of beauty. In school, in business, in love, and in life, appearance matters. One must spend some time worrying over ones appearance; one must spend some time dealing effectively with discrimination.”
As you may imagine, being physically attractive is more an asset than a liability in most situations. In fact, research shows that less attractive people are subject to discrimination in seeking relationships and jobs. Aside from executive women, for whom stunning looks may lead others to perceive them as less competent than their plainer peers, most men and women benefit from being considered beautiful. Beautiful female executives must be careful to dress "appropriately," say the authors, to emphasize their business acumen, lest their looks distract (usually male) colleagues from accurate assessments of their competencies.
And there is a general consensus on what constitutes beauty in men and in women, according to the author's research. Women today who are considered beautiful are leaner than their beautiful predecessors of twenty-five to fifty years ago. Miss Americans have grown taller and slimmer in recent years, while handsome men are of medium build and have thin legs.
A consensus among both men and women about standards of physical attractiveness has existed in every generation, although there is historical change in the definition of beauty. Older women and men, for example, are now considered more attractive than they were a generation ago. Of course, cultures also differ in their conceptions of beauty, some preferring plumpness is contrast to our contemporary anorexic model.
Studies of the impact of physical attractiveness on others have focused primarily on first impressions, not on lasting personal or professional relationships. The degree to which prejudices about beauty control actual life choices has hardly been studied. Attractiveness may give both men and women entrée to new situations that the less attractive do not enjoy, but studies show that looks cannot carry all of the weight of lasting relationships.
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