Jezebel: On Beauty

Can You Legislate Against The Beauty Bias?

Anna North — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 18:00:00 EDT

A new book recommends that we prosecute appearance discrimination as strictly as we do racial or gender bias. But is that even possible? More »

On Beauty

Anna Holmes — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 09:10:00 EDT

[Hay-On-We, U.K.; June 6. Image via Getty]

Women Protest Idiotic Aussie Mayor, Play Right Into His Fame Whorey Hands

Jessica G. — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:30:00 EDT

Remember the Mayor of ~~Jerktown~~, er, Mount Isa, Australia, who tried to entice "beauty disadvantaged" women to his mostly-male town? Well, the women of Mount Isa aren't taking this lying down (though Mayor John Molony probably wants them to - zing!). According to the local Townsville Bulletin, angry citizens protested outside the City Council forecourt last night; organizer Tracy Pertovt told the paper, "The outraged women of Mount Isa felt that the mayor's comments were archaic and it is totally not the image that we want to project for our city." Some people wore t-shirts at the protest that said "beauty challenged" and my personal favorite, "I'm ugly and I vote." Just as we suspected when we mentioned this story on Monday, Mr. Molony was just pulling this crap for publicity anyway. More »

Aussie Mayor Calls On "Beauty-Disadvantaged" Women To Move To Testosterone-Addled Town

Jessica G. — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:40:00 EDT

We got a lot of tips this weekend about Australian mayor John Molony, who suggested that "beauty-disadvantaged women should proceed to Mount Isa," the mining town he presides over in northwest Queensland, because there's "five blokes to every girl." In the first place, Molony just ganked the plot of the Janeane Garofalo vehicle The Matchmaker when he made this announcement, but in the second place, I can't manage to foment even a tinge of outrage about it. I mean, yeah, saying that his town is a haven for ugly girls is sexist and deeply lame thing to say, but lame enough for it to be the most emailed story on the BBC's website? Really? Is it that shocking to hear a gross old dude — particularly a man who lives in a town where 96% of the inhabitants are men — say that women who are not conventionally beautiful are not as valuable? More »

Telling A Child She's Beautiful Could Be Sending The Wrong Message

Jessica G. — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:30:00 EDT

In today's Times of London, fashion editor Lisa Armstrong dissects what she deems our egregiously-lookist society. "Increasingly, looks are used to define women who never set out to compete by those rules," Armstrong points out. "The entire female flank of the French Cabinet has recently had their wardrobes pored over as if they were auditioning to fill in for Cate Blanchett on the red carpet while she takes a spot of maternity leave." Armstrong also quotes Fay Weldon, writer and insane-o, who, for once, makes a good point. "Nowadays, all little girls are told that they're beautiful by their mothers, even when they're not," Weldon says. "We're terribly conflicted. We don't want appearance to be important, but almost everything we do reinforces that they are." More »

Is A Female-Only Literature Prize Sexist?

Jessica G. — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:30:00 EDT

Upon the release of this year's long-list for the Orange Broadband prize for women's fiction, a couple of English novelists are decrying the prize under the grounds that it's conceptually sexist (Zadie Smith, pictured, won the Orange in 2006 for On Beauty). Still Life scribe A.S. Byatt bitched about the prize to the Times of London, saying, "Such a prize was never needed" because it ghettoizes women's literature. Byatt is so against the prize on principle that she refuses to allow her books to be considered for the Orange at all. Novelist Tim Lott adds to Byatt's gripes in The Telegraph, saying the Orange is unnecessary because, "Women are predominant, in terms of numbers and power, in most of the major publishing houses and agencies. They sell most of the books, into a market that largely comprises women readers. Girls in schools are more literate than boys, and pupils are taught reading mainly by female teachers promoting mainly female writers." More »