Over the past few decades, social media, the meritocracy and celebrity culture have fused to form a modern culture that... places tremendous emphasis on competitive display, personal achievement and the idea that physical beauty is an external sign of moral beauty and overall worth.

My God, you're almost there. Just say that capitalism wants to trash those who don't have immediate material value.

  • Avell [he/him, any]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    From the same rag that brought you "if your friends are obese, you're more likely to be obese" and implied that the reverse of obese is "studious, kind, and enterprising" literally less than a month ago.

  • mr_world [they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugly_law

    Between 1867 and 1974, various cities of the United States had unsightly beggar ordinances, in retrospect also dubbed ugly laws.[1] For instance, in San Francisco a law of 1867 deemed it illegal for "any person, who is diseased, maimed, mutilated or deformed in any way, so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object, to expose himself or herself to public view."

    Ugly laws in the United States arose in the late nineteenth century. During this period, urban spaces underwent an influx of new residents, which placed strain on the existing communities. The new residents were sometimes impoverished. This meant large numbers of people who were strangers to each other now occupied closer quarters than they had in small towns, where such local institutions as schools, families, and churches helped moderate social relations.[6][7] As a reaction to this influx of people who were impoverished, ministers, charitable organizers, city planners, and city officials across the United States worked to create ugly laws for their community.[1]

    The language of the unsightly beggar ordinances pertained to hiding the parts of the person that may appear disabled or diseased. This includes any movements that would indicate a disability or disease, like limping.

    Damn facebook of the 1800s. Absolutely no historical awareness. Blaming pagans? Fuck you.

  • wantonviolins [they/them]M
    ·
    3 years ago

    lookism

    don't we have words for this already? beauty standard discourse has been going on for decades, surely better language exists to express this specific prejudice

    • Huldra [they/them, it/its]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Even if we didnt have words for it already "lookism" is like the most dogshit way to phrase it, like do you want people to mock the name of it so much no one pays attention to what you are actually talking about?

      Surely theres some latin shit you could call it to make people take it seriously.

      • BelovedOldFriend [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Surely theres some latin shit you could call it to make people take it seriously.

        Academia has poisoned us all

        • Huldra [they/them, it/its]
          ·
          3 years ago

          In this situation I think its good because otherwise the only thing people think of when inventing new concepts is just bolting an -ism at the end of it, it blows so hard even more than academia.

    • ButtBidet [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      Maybe because I'm tired, but it doesn't come to me on the top of my head. Please someone tell me if they remember.

  • buh [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    This is puzzling. We live in a society

    :jokerfication:

  • comi [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    David brooks :funny-clown-hammer:

    • medium_adult_son [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      We need a jokerfied content warning for any articles from him. I took some serious psychic damage reading that.

    • ButtBidet [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      On the top of my head, I'd say that socialist countries would attach less economic value to beauty, and beautiful people wouldn't need to use their beauty to get ahead as much. I have no evidence for this, though.

    • SoyViking [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Every society has beauty standards, including socialist ones. However under capitalism a multi-billion dollar advertising industry exists that racks up these beauty standards to impossible levels for economic gain.

      Socialist countries had less straining and more lightly enforced beauty standards than capitalist ones. This is one of the reason why sex was better under socialism, since there were noone who earned their living telling women they were too fat or their noses too big or whatever, women felt better about themselves and as a consequence had better sex.

  • RepublicansAreScum [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    This is the usual conservative inscrutable bullshit. Ignore tangible documented things like racial or gender discrimination, and let's talk about the real racism against the small-penised.

    Something something natural law