Aesthetic Discrimination Against Persons

Bibliographic Data

ID9687945
AuthorsL Duane Willard (University of Nebraska at Omaha, corresponding author)
Year1977
Volume16
Issue4
Pages676-692
Publication date1977-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDialogue (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0012-2173 • E-ISSN: 1759-0949
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0012217300026056
OpenAlexW2057348163
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited7

An Acquaintance of mine decided, in the late 1950s, to become an officer in the U.S. Navy, until he discovered a Navy regulation stating that ugly men would not be accepted as officer candidates. Surely there is something suspicious about such a policy. Yet, in a time when people are so conscious of the many forms of discrimination — race, colour, sex, age, religion — it is somewhat surprising that little serious attention is given to the practice of what I shall call ‘aesthetic discrimination against persons’, discrimination on the basis of appearance or looks. It is true that, in recent years, some social scientists have conducted research leading them to the conclusion that human beings prefer and esteem good looking people over plain or ugly ones (a conclusion the truth of which has been known for thousands of years prior to its ‘proof’). A few of these researchers have even been willing to venture moral opinions on the subject

Aesthetics · Art · Navy · Officer · Political science · Race (biology) · Sociology · Subject (documents) · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Gender Studies · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology

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