As I was reading through Amusing Ourselves to Death,
Postman points out in both chapter one and chapter seven how appearances have
come to play a role in politics and the news.
In
politics, Postman talks about how former President Richard Nixon gives advice
to Senator Edward Kennedy to lose weight in order to make a run for presidency.
This suggests that looks play a significant role in who gets the job. It’s as
if the way you look is becoming the determinant factor in how skilled you are
in modern society. Postman states how it appears that those who are bald,
overweight, or do not use cosmetics to improve their look are excluded from
running for a political office position.
Appearances
also play a role in who gets the job for news reporters. Postman creates a
scenario where there is an employer looking to hire for a job in television
news. The first thing that Postman believes the employer would do is group the
applicants by faces that are “likeable” or “credible” and by age. Those who are
unattractive or too old for the employer’s liking would immediately be excluded
from getting the job despite the fact that may have better skill than the
attractive applicants. Those who are unattractive apparently “hamper viewer
acceptance”. Sadly, I believe that this unfairness with looks is the case with
most jobs.
So, are politics and news succumbing to the entertainment
business’ standards where its hosts must be attractive? Is modern society
starting to believe that the better you look, the more believable you are and
is it starting to increasingly place a larger role on appearances over skills?
Is this the affect of television and its visual entertainment?
Although as I grow oldder, it becomes more and more apparent that looks go a long way, I don't think that other, more important factors and pushed aside and not taken into account when hiring. It is true that more attention is given to those with more favorable genetic traits. I can not count the amount of time I've hear girls say,"Lets watch the new Channing Tatum movie! I hear he takes his shirt off!".
ReplyDeleteThink about it. Have you ever seen an ugly actor playing a "pretty" role? Or, using Gemma's example, Channing Tatum playing a role where he wasn't the good looking one or shirtless? Appearance is everything. I don't think that you are more believable if you are pretty. In fact, I think that if you aren't perfect, you are more realistic.
ReplyDeleteTall men earn higher salaries than short men.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/5887567/Tall-men-earn-more-than-shorter-colleagues-research-claims..html
And who is Channing Tatum?
ReplyDeleteHe's an actor from movies such as 21 Jump Street, the Vow, and Dear John. He has a movie where he's a stripper as well called Magic Mike. He's an attractive 30 or something year old man and a lot of girls are big fans of him because he has a nice physical appearance.
DeletePart of this problem is human nature. We are naturally attracted to human beings who are pleasing to the eye. I think sometimes as a leader or politician, you will be more liked if you're found as an attractive person. People will more likely want to follow or respect someone who society labels as attractive than someone who isn't. I think that television and the media may have magnified this because we are now constantly seeing people who are changed through the magic of video editing and make up and we begin to hold people to this standard of looking good.
ReplyDelete