Women's Studies International Forum 40 (2013) 111–120

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Women's Studies International Forum

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Lookism in Indonesia's public relations industry

Deborah N. Simorangkir
Universitas Pelita Harapan, Department of Communication, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, UPH Tower, Lippo Karawaci, Tangerang 15811, Indonesia

a r t i c l e i n f o s y n o p s i s

Available online 13 June 2013
As a feminized profession, public relations is dominated by women in numbers, but dominated
by men in power and responsibility. Because in Indonesia, public relations is often regarded as
frontliners of the organization, as opposed to a managerial function, an emphasis on physical
attractiveness is placed on its practitioners, thus promoting lookism. This article aims to
answer the following research questions:

1. What are the perceptions of PR professionals and students toward the existence of lookism
in their field?
2. Do public relations professionals and students regard lookism as an effect of the feminization
of the profession?

In-depth interviews were conducted with 50 public relations professionals and 125 public
relations students in the Jakarta area. Findings show that lookism is present in Indonesia's public
relations industry. While practitioners oscillate from negating and admitting the existence of
lookism, students are fully aware of such discrimination, and agree that attractiveness is essential
in public relations.
© 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction communication—empathy, networking, and multi-tasking—

In Indonesia, as in most other countries, public relations
is regarded as a female profession, in which women have
entered the conventionally male dominated fields of finance,
politics, and government, and even heavy industry. This
common notion is supported by the number of young women
getting into college majors in public relations, and women
predominating in its teaching. Many women are also setting
up their own agencies and are even winning the top jobs in
major public relations companies. In such a patriarchal
country as Indonesia, public relations seems to be making
gender equity a reality. But is it really?
Grunig, Toth, and Hon (2001) claim that women find public
relations attractive because the career obstacles do not seem
too difficult and these women can achieve professional status.
Other attractive factors include remuneration, flexibility, and
promotion prospects. Most importantly, women find public
relations attractive because traditionally feminine skills in
are encouraged and appreciated. Hence, the feminization
of public relations seems to be more advantageous for
women. Nevertheless, many public relations feminist scholars
(e.g., Cline et al., 1986; Fröhlich, 2004; Grunig et al., 2001;
Simorangkir, 2009) argue that the increasing number of
women in public relations actually camouflage the negative
impacts of such feminization. In Indonesia, one of the effects of
this feminization is prejudice on grounds of appearance, also
known as lookism (Simorangkir, 2009).
Budgeon (2003) says that today's society has become
ocular centric because people increasingly tend to identify
themselves and others through their eyes and therefore
construct self-identity based on the physical appearance.
Hence, ultimately the outer appearance becomes what is
most important. Indeed, findings from labor-market research
show that attractiveness is highly awarded while unattrac-
tiveness is penalized, as Hammermesh claims, attractive
workers who interact with the company's clients earn more

0277-5395/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2013.05.014
112 D.N. Simorangkir / Women's Studies International Forum 40 (2013) 111–120
year after year, and that fact is reinforced when these
attractive workers inspire other workers and also increase
their productivity (Hammermesh & Biddle, 1994).
In many Western countries, there are antidiscrimination
legislations that aim to prevent denying employment on the
basis of “weight and personal appearance” and “facial features,
build and height” (Greenhouse, 2003; Saltau, 2001). Neverthe-
less, Cavico, Muffler, and Mujtaba (2013) argue that appearance-
based discrimination is not illegal in the USA, unless it “can be
connected to a protected category, and thus converted into a
discrimination claim based on race, color, sex, or any other
protected characteristic under civil rights laws.”
In Indonesia, discrimination based on physical appearance
can be found every day through the hundreds of job ads for
public relations positions that state ‘attractive appearance’ as
one – if not the main – criteria for applicants. Another
common criterion is ‘female’. Thus, despite of having been
defined by forefathers Ivy Lee and Edward L. Bernays as “a
management function, which tabulates public attitudes,
defines, the policies, procedures, and interests of an organi-
zation…followed by executing a program of action to earn
public understanding and acceptance” (Seitel, 2007), public
relations practitioners in Indonesia are often regarded as
mere frontliners of the company they represent, and are not
part of the managerial function of the company (Ananto,
2003; Prayitno, 2001), and because they are regarded as
mere frontliners, companies continuously require attractive-
ness from their applicants. This becomes a vicious cycle.
This article seeks to analyze the extent to which public
relations practitioners in Indonesia – being identified by society,
including employers, through their outer appearance –
construct their own identity through their outer appearance.
It seeks to find out what these practitioners and students think
of the existence of lookism in their field. Therefore, this study
aims to answer the following research questions:
1. What are the perceptions of PR practitioners and students
toward the existence of lookism in their field?
2. Do public relations practitioners and students regard
lookism as an effect of the feminization of the profession?
Research method
In order to answer the research questions, data were
gathered through the qualitative method of in-depth inter-
views. The researcher obtained a list of 100 public relations
practitioners and educators based in the Jakarta area from the
directory of a professional association. After contacting the
practitioners via email, 50 practitioners agreed to participate in
this study. All interviews were conducted in Jakarta because as
the nation's capital, it is the center of the PR industry in
Indonesia. In fact, more than half of public relations practi-
tioners in Indonesia are based in Jakarta.
With the help of administrators from four private univer-
sities that offer public relations programs in the Jakarta area,
the researcher also conducted interviews with 125 students
majoring in public relations. The ages of the students range
from 18 to 22. All interviews were conducted between the
years 2009 and 2011. Both the interviews with practitioners
and with students lasted an average of 30 min.
Public relations practitioners were chosen as respondents
to explore their experience and perception about lookism
in public relations and whether they perceive lookism as a
gendered discrimination as an effect of the feminization
of the industry. On the other hand, students were also
interviewed because unlike experienced practitioners, stu-
dents have only learned about public relations from the
classroom. Therefore their knowledge about public relations
may be strictly normative. Moreover, the vast majority of
books on public relations used in universities come from the
United States, thus the students are likely to envision public
relations as described in their textbooks. Nevertheless, the
notion that public relations is a feminine job and that it often
requires attractiveness is commonly held in Indonesia, and
the researcher has yet to encounter any textbook that links
public relations to attractiveness. Therefore, the researcher
is interested in knowing whether public relations students
are aware of the existence of lookism in their future
professional field, and what their perception is of such
discrimination.
The interview transcriptions were then subject to content
and interpretative phenomenological analyses based on the
study's research questions. The researcher looked for main
themes and supporting evidence of each of these main themes,
which included: Views on the perception of PR as a feminized
profession, views of lookism, views on the connection between
gender and lookism, and personal experiences that may be
linked to lookism. The questions asked to the practitioners are
similar to the ones asked to the students, except, practitioners
were asked about their experiences with lookism and other
types of discrimination in the course of their career, while
students were asked about what they know about public
relations from the classroom and what they think of lookism
and other discriminations that they may encounter upon
entering the workforce. Direct quotes from participants were
then cataloged under main themes, and evidences of lookism
and the opinions of the practitioners and students were
analyzed using a feminist theoretical perspective, and cultural
discourses on attractiveness.
Public relations in Indonesia
Many countries have adopted American or European public
relations principles but still develop the public relations
profession according to their own cultures (Josephs, 1990).
Therefore, a mere explanation of international public relations,
or even public relations in Asia, would not be sufficient to
understand about public relations in Indonesia, as it is heavily
influenced by Indonesian culture, politics, and socioeconomic
background. Although numerous research studies are conducted
yearly by Indonesian scholars, most of them focus on the public
relations practice of certain specific organizations. Very few
empirical studies have focused on Indonesian public relations
principles.
Some argue that public relations began in Indonesia
shortly after the country's declaration of independence in
1945, when Indonesia decided to publicize its independence to
the world. Others, however, argue that modern public relations
was introduced to Indonesia in the early 1950s when multi-
national companies entered the country (Ananto, 2003).
The commonly used Indonesian term for public relations is
 D.N. Simorangkir / Women's Studies International Forum 40 (2013) 111–120
hubungan masyarakat, often shortened to humas (Gunawan,
1998), but some argue that this term is inaccurate as it
translates more closely to community relations, whereas public
relations deals with more publics other than the community.
Nevertheless, the definition of humas is similar to the definition
of public relations in the United States,
Humas, or public relations, is an effort to create a
harmonious and understanding relationship between an
organization and its public. Humas is an art and also a
social science that analyzes behavioral patterns and
predicts their consequences, thus giving guidance for an
organization's management in executing programs for the
good of the organization and its public (Gunawan, 1998,
para. 1).
The development of the public relations industry in
Indonesia has lagged behind the development of public
relations in many Asian countries due to the Indonesian
people's lack of understanding about public relations and
how it helps support a company's communications objectives
and corporate brand in a competitive business environment.
Prayitno (2001, para. 3) agrees that the biggest challenge
facing the development of public relations in Indonesia is the
organizational decision makers' misconceptions regarding
public relations activities. Many decision makers still think
that public relations merely involves hiring an attractive
woman to represent the organization by saying pleasant
things about that organization.
Despite the slow growth, Indonesian public relations as an
educational and as a professional field has evolved signifi-
cantly (Ardianto, 2002). This growth is indicated by the
number of institutions that offer public relations studies.
Public relations has become one of the study programs with
the most applicants in the entire nation yearly. Numerous
organizations have also come to realize the need for public
relations and have structured separate departments or public
relations units within their organizations (Ardianto, 2002),
yet to a large extent, top managers often do not realize the
need for public relations until faced with a crisis (Wenas,
2002). After the financial crisis that hit Indonesia in 1997,
organizations have been striving more than ever to survive
by making budget cuts, and the public relations department
is usually the first one to suffer from these cuts (Wenas,
2002). Indonesia's policy of privatization beginning in the
1990s, however, greatly increased the demand for public
relations consultants. Globalization and the growing number
of mergers and acquisitions in Indonesia have boosted the
need for strategic public relations (Ananto, 2003).
To some Indonesian journalists and observers, public
relations is merely a promotional tool for organizational
products or services rather than a method of creating
harmonious relationships between organizations and their
publics. Thus, to Indonesian journalists, public relations is often
a synonym for image building regardless of ethical standards
(Ananto, 2003). “Cash for editorial,” often called zakazukha—a
Russian word that means the acceptance of bribes by
journalists in exchange for editorial or other unethical media
practices—is common in many countries around the world,
according to a study published by the International Public
Relations Association (IPRA), which recently launched
113
Campaign for Media Transparency (ICMT) (Council of Public
Relations Firms, 2002). In Indonesia, the practice of zakazukha
remains a problem that public relations practitioners deal with
regularly (Macnamara, 2002). Most professional journalists
would not ask for money. However, some still expect
“transportation money,” and some individuals even use fake
IDs to attend press conferences in hopes of receiving money
from public relations practitioners (Macnamara, 2002). At the
same time, public relations practitioners are often worried that
if they do not give a ‘tip,’ these reporters will publish false
information that will harm the organizations they represent
(Macnamara, 2002). Nevertheless, the act of bribery is not
exclusively found in the public relations industry in Indonesia.
It is found in most public sectors. It is expected and is seldom
questioned.
Public relations as a feminized industry
The number of female practitioners in the public relations
industry has led to the notion that women are not experiencing
gender discrimination in Indonesia. However, research findings
from other professions and industries have shown that over
time, feminization leads to a decline in status and remuneration.
The fact that public relations requires communication
skills that particularly aim toward reaching a consensus and
dialog gives women more access to this profession at the
entry level because of the women are believed to possess
these very skills (Christmas, 1997). Ironically, these skills do
not necessarily have an influence on how long women stay in
the profession or how far they will be able to advance in their
careers. It seems that the very attributes that get women into
the communications sector – sensitivity, caring, honesty,
fairness or morality – often are also associated with a lack of
assertiveness and weak leadership skills (Cline et al., 1986).
This, as Fröhlich (2004) argues, will result in women falling
into the “friendliness trap” without even knowing it because
people who are accustomed to being applauded because of
their particular skills usually would not consider that these
same skills could actually be a disadvantage later on in
their career. Indeed, some of the known impacts of the
feminization of the public relations industry in Indonesia are:
Degradation of the public relations profession, lookism,
encroachment, and low remuneration, and sexual harass-
ment in the workplace (Simorangkir, 2009).
Feminism in Indonesia
Since 1998, when Indonesia began its transition toward a
more democratic society, many women's groups have been
working actively on women's rights issues within the context
of feminism. Consequently, the application of feminist ideas
has become more visible, although in Indonesia, feminism
and women's rights are still the concern of a relatively small
group of women and some men. The terms ‘feminism,’
‘feminist,’ and even ‘gender’ are still considered by many to
be non-indigenous concepts that are irrelevant to Indonesian
values. Certain assumptions remain common: Feminism is a
Western concept; it is anti-men; it perceives men to be the
source of all gender inequity; it promotes the acceptance of
lesbianism, and so forth (Sadli, 2002).
114 D.N. Simorangkir / Women's Studies International Forum 40 (2013) 111–120
The women's movement in Indonesia started early in the
20th century along with the nationalist movement. Both
movements were supported by similar socio-economic forces,
modern education, improved communications, and contact with
international ideas. The best known advocate of early Indonesian
feminism was R.A. Kartini, a woman whose life was influenced
by her Western education, which generated feelings of dissat-
isfaction and ambitions for greater autonomy for women.
Through her movement, women began to form modern
organizations to pursue their aspirations, and to publicize new
ideas and concerns in the media (Blackburn, 2001).
After an alleged coup d'état on September 30, 1965, in
which seven military generals were killed, Gerwani – an
organization of communist women active in Indonesia in the
1950s and 1960s – was banned along with most other leftist
groups and many of its members were killed. The Army accused
Gerwani members of having killed the generals, dancing naked,
castrating the men, and engaging in other similar depravity.
Under President Suharto, the organization became a frequently
mentioned example of immorality in the pre-1965 era. Most
of today's historians agree these accusations were false. Yet
thousands of Gerwani members were raped and killed as part of
the counterattack against leftist organizations that followed
(Martyn, 1997).
In her book, Sexual Politics in Indonesia (2002), Wieringa
describes the growth of the Indonesian women's movement
from its beginnings in the 1920s through the Sukarno period,
investigating influences such as feminism, Marxism, and
nationalism. She analyzes Gerwani's views of gender and
womanhood, and how these developed as the organization's
early feminism succumbed to stricter nationalist and Marxist
ideals. Wieringa (1995) argues that “Suharto rose to power by
creating a campaign of unprecedented violence, legitimized by
accusations of sexual debauchery allegedly committed by
members of Gerwani,” and added, “The New Order is not only
built on the deaths of an estimated million innocent people
who were massacred in the last months of 1965 and the first
months of 1966, but also on the suppression of the power
women had acquired in the preceding decade, a power which
their adversaries conceived of through sexual metaphors”
(Wieringa, 1995).
Wieringa (2002) describes Gerwani's type of feminism as
‘militant motherhood’, which promoted equality for women,
yet also accepted the common belief in women's ‘natural’
differences from men. Gerwani illustrated the Javanese wayang
(puppet) character Srikandi to combine militant activism with
the traditional belief that women's primary role is as mothers.
Gerwani promoted a conservative morality, giving emphasis to
monogamous marriage and heterosexuality while condemning
prostitution, forced marriage, and rock music.
Most Indonesian feminists do not consider themselves
feminists in the same sense as feminists in the West. As former
first lady Sinta Nuriyah Abdurrahman Wahid says, “I am a
feminist according to Indonesia's state ideology of Pancasila.
This means that I base my actions on my belief as a Muslim, but
also accept the other religions that are present in Indonesia.
Furthermore, I strive for democracy and equal rights for all. My
goal is equality between men and women, since it says in the
Koran that men and women are each other's helpers” (van
Doorn-Harder, 2001, para. 4). Wahid adds that it is difficult for
Indonesians to discuss such issues as violence domestic
women, “Many women think that their husbands are allowed
to beat them. Talking about this is taboo, since it is considered a
family secret. If a woman comes out and admits that her
husband abuses her, she is dishonoring her whole family” (van
Doorn-Harder, 2001, para. 9).
In 1974, the authoritarian New Order under Suharto
granted the women's movement what it had long desired, a
uniform marriage law that offered women more legal protec-
tion and certainty in marriage than what they previously had
under the largely unsupervised and exclusively male-run
Islamic legal system. Since 1974, the religious courts have
been heavily under the government's control. Women have
repeatedly been appointed as judges, and decisions, especially
about divorce and polygamy, are less arbitrary against wives.
Arguably, the Marriage Law was also useful to a government
seeking to establish its development plans on small, stable
families. Some may even argue that this was a trade-off for
getting the women's movement to provide unpaid labor for the
government's development strategy (Blackburn, 2001).
Lookism and the cultural discourse on attractiveness
Over the past century, mainstream social scientists have
regarded beauty as a social construct that varies from culture
to culture, and contains no real importance outside specific
cultural contexts (see Jackson, 1992). However, evolutionary
psychologists challenge this dominant view (e.g., Buss, 1987;
Buss & Schmitt, 2011; Symons, 1979; Vandermassen, 2010;
Williams, 1975; Wolf, 1991), arguing that standards of
beauty, though culturally constructed, are considerably
anchored in observable persistent cues in ancestral males
throughout evolutionary time. The main arguments of the
evolutionary psychologists regarding female attractiveness
are: (1) A key adaptive problem ancestral males faced involved
identifying and preferentially choosing fertile or reproductively
valuable mates (males selecting infertile mates left no de-
scendants); (2) this adaptive problem was exacerbated by the
evolution of relatively concealed or cryptic ovulation in women
(in contrast to chimpanzee females, for whom ovulation is
signaled by visible and olfactory estrus cues); (3) standards of
female attractiveness evolved to be attuned to recurrently
observable cues that were statistically correlated with fertility
(Buss, 1987; Symons, 1979).
Today, many social scientists are open to the possibility that
culture is to a degree motivated by evolutionary impulses:
genetically programmed strategies of self-preservation and
species-perpetuation (Tietje & Cresap, 2005). Social scientists
are increasingly recognizing that lookism may be the result of
evolution, thus beauty is a universal biological adaptation
experienced by all humans, and that it causes pleasure,
attention, and urges actions that help ensure the survival of
our genes (Etcoff, 1999).
Armstrong (2003) argues, however, that the notion of
attractiveness is indeed fundamental to the feminist perspec-
tive on the oppression of women because biological differences
between men and women are the foundation used to
legitimize gender inequality. Thus, by appealing to historical
biological characteristics, the idea that women are inferior to
men becomes natural and legitimate, and biological functions
are transformed into social characteristics. The male standard
of female beauty can even lead to the degradation of women as
 D.N. Simorangkir / Women's Studies International Forum 40 (2013) 111–120
sex objects, disregarding other dimensions such as talents,
abilities, and personality traits. Yet in the modern society, this
standard leads to a competition among females to possess the
qualities men desire (Buss, 2003; Schmitt & Buss, 1996; Singh &
Singh, 2011).
In the West, beauty has long been associated with goodness,
truth and morality (Grogan, 1999) and fairy stories, advertis-
ing, film and television have institutionalized these associa-
tions in what Synott (1993) calls ‘the beauty mystique’. Bordo
(1993) even suggests that the ‘correct attitude’ is symbolized
by the smooth, firm, well-toned body surface, because it
portrays willpower, energy, self control, success, morality and
power. Thus, attractive individuals are deemed more confident,
successful, sensitive, kind, sincere, interesting, poised and
sociable than the homely.
In Asia, whiter skin appearance has been highly prized as
an accent to beauty, especially in Japan, where women
notoriously make the effort to avoid sunlight under parasols
in the summer. And the legendary beauty of geishas depends
on the whiteness and softness of the skin on the nape of their
necks. For centuries, to have the ideal porcelain-pale complex-
ion has been engrained in the Japanese culture. In the past,
women used to scrub their skin with ‘nuka’ (rice hulls) for skin
oxidation or grind pearls into powder for swallowing. Today,
Japanese women, like many Asian women around the world,
rely on scientists to play a major role in formulating
increasingly sophisticated and, arguable, safer products.
Some argue that Asian women pursue white skin to
emulate the stereotypically Caucasian beauty. However,
history also shows that this obsession with the lighter skin
has more to do with social class. The lighter complexion is
associated with wealth and higher education levels, whereas
darker skin suggests a life of outdoor labor in the sun. Over
the years throughout Asia, white skin has become a symbol of
youthfulness and attractiveness to the opposite sex due
thanks to aggressive marketing by major cosmetic compa-
nies, supported by international film industries and adver-
tisements that promote the lighter-skinned celebrities as
ambassadors of Asian beauty. From this perspective, having
superior surfaces is advantageous and empowering. Attrac-
tive individuals are treated better, get higher-paying jobs, are
more likely to be acquitted on criminal charges and obtain
assistance from strangers more easily (Grogan, 1999; Synott,
1993; Wykes & Gunter, 2005). At the same time, however,
attractiveness can also become disadvantageous when it
leads to negative associations, which may be disempowering
to those with superior surfaces.
Feminists criticize the ‘beauty mystique’, denouncing the
modern emphasis on appearances as oppressive for women
(Freedman, 1986; Grogan, 1999). From a radical feminist
perspective, both employment discrimination and sexual
harassment are the result of male dominance, which results
in the sexualization of the woman worker as part of the job.
And because this is the result of the patriarchal system, radical
feminists suggest the dismantling of the male-dominated
structure. Liberal feminists on the other hand, support the
equality of men and women through political and legal reform.
Therefore, liberal feminism views the personal interactions of
men and women as the starting ground from which to
transform society into a more gender-equitable place. Liberal
feminists generally work for the eradication of institutional
115
bias such as lookism, and the implementation of better
laws. Unlike radical feminism, liberal feminism argues that
corporate cultures should not be dismantled; they can only be
restructured to provide a better, more welcoming environment
for women. Therefore from the liberal feminist perspective, it is
crucial that a company puts into effect equal opportunity
employment and treatment for men and women (Wrigley,
2002).
Therefore, there seems to be conflicting cultural dis-
courses regarding the value of attractiveness. This reflects
what Edley (2001) refers to as an ‘ideological dilemma’. Edley
(2001) claims that such conflicting cultural discourses or
‘interpretive repertoires’ develop alongside each other as
opposing sides in an unfolding, historical argument. Oscilla-
tion between competing subject positions, inconsistency, and
contradiction in people's discursive accounts reflect these
‘ideological dilemmas.’
In a business context, employers often make hiring de-
cisions based on the appearance and attractiveness of their job
applicants. James (2008, p. 229) indicates that “…outward
appearance plays a significant role in everyday life. Magazines
and television programs that illustrate America's obsession
with appearance overrun society. Consequently, employers
realize that looks do matter, and their hiring decisions reflect
this simple fact.” In Australia, for instance, Warhurst, Van den
Broek, Hall, and Nickson (2012) conclude that lookism is
commonly found not only in interactive service work that
primarily involve female workers, but also in other industries
such as manufacturing. In a UK study, however, findings show
that attractiveness in female academics is perceived to be a
disadvantage in their careers, thus young female academics
‘play down’ theirs. In fact, non-academics see academics as
being career driven by their lack of attractiveness and/or poor
appearance. Male academics, however, do not report such
consideration.
Regardless of whether attractiveness is perceived as an
advantage or disadvantage in one's career, it is a still
discrimination. Nevertheless, Cavico, Muffler, and Mujtaba
(2012) argue that appearance discrimination is both legal and
moral, and that employers should only be careful because an
attractiveness standard may be linked to categories such as
gender and race, and actually, “if a person, perhaps regarded as
“unattractive,” cannot tie his or her appearance-based lawsuit
to a protected category under federal, state, or local civil rights
laws, that person will not have legal redress” (p. 800).
Research findings
Findings from the interviews with the public relations
practitioners show that there seems to be an ideological
dilemma among the public relations practitioners. At first they
furiously reject the idea of the existence of lookism in public
relations. But then they contradict themselves by admitting that
attractive appearance is indeed important in public relations. As
one female head of public relations department says,
“People tend to think of PR practitioners as mere
frontliners with short skirts, pantihoses, high heels, and
good make up, and that these practitioners need not be
smart as long as they are good looking, I think that the
mindset of the companies still focus on the notion that a
116 D.N. Simorangkir / Women's Studies International Forum 40 (2013) 111–120
competent PR practitioner has to be female. Moreover,
sometimes PR is related to attractive women who are able
to woo or lobby the clients, and this sometimes gives
female PR practitioners a negative image”.
The vast majority of respondents, however, believe that
good-looking and well-dressed individuals have not only a
better chance of receiving a job after an interview, but also
greater opportunities to advance in their fields. Some
practitioners even reveal that they have been discriminated
due to weight or physical appearances during interviews or
in the workplace. The researcher finds it ironic, that though
when asked whether they agreed with the assumption that
public relations was a female profession, the majority of
respondents do not agree, arguing that such assumption
would automatically link the profession to attractive appear-
ances, all respondents—male and female—do nonetheless,
agree that an attractive appearance is one of the require-
ments for a public relations position. They do emphasize,
however, that looks are not the main qualification, and that
communications skills and strategic thinking are still the
main criteria. Some of their comments include:
“What we look for is likeability. Likeability has nothing to
do with short skirts, good looking, bad looking, etc. It
could mean ugly person and very likeable. Likeability is a
skill, it has to do with active listening, etc. And you know,
you need people that are likeable, especially in this
industry, so we look for likeable. Of course it will be
unfair as it is, if you are good looking, the chances are of
you being likeable is so high… Yeah, so sad, but I didn't
make the rule…”
And,
“An attractive appearance is also important, because when
we have to interact with different publics, one of the things
that help you establish relationships is of course, your
attractive appearance. No one would approach you if you
look bad…Attractive appearance is mainly physical, if
you're a woman, you have to look pretty, even though
people have different perceptions of what's pretty, the way
you dress is also important, because people see the outside
first. That's how it is real life…”
It seems that many practitioners oscillate between trying to
maintain the credibility and professionalism of their industry
by denying the idea that attractiveness is a main factor in their
profession, but at the same time, they try to give excuses that
would somehow justify why attractiveness – although not the
most important factor, as they say – is also a highly valued asset
in their profession. The most common excuse these practi-
tioners give is the fact that they are constantly communicating
with the public, and if they were not attractive, the public
would not want to approach/talk to/deal with them.
While practitioners seem to oscillate from negating and
admitting the existence of lookism, the majority of students are
fully aware of such discrimination even though they have only
learned about public relations normatively from their textbooks.
Indeed, the majority of students claim that they are well
aware of the tendency to prefer physically attractive applicants
over non-attractive applicants, and they actually believe that
upon graduation, in order for them to land a job and succeed in
the public relations industry, they must be physically attractive.
When asked whether they agree with physical attractiveness
being one of the main criteria in the public relations profession,
some of the students' responses include:
“I have no problem with it because PR work requires
dealing with the media and the public so we have to look
attractive.”
And,
“Of course, because if we look attractive we become
credible, and first impressions impact our reputation. If
we give a good first impression, the public will give us a
positive feedback.”
Seeing how attractive appearance is an essential factor in
the minds of both public relations practitioners and students,
it seems important to know what the respondents deem
attractive. Their responses vary; most associate attractive-
ness with attires, neatness and cleanliness, while some focus
on the physical traits “A pretty face, beautiful body, and ideal
height,” a male student answers.
Because such physical traits are regarded essential for a
successful career in public relations, these students are also
asked to define what public relations mean to them. It turns
out, most students link the importance of attractiveness
to their understanding that public relations serve as the
frontliners of an organization. As one female student says,
“PR is the first person that goes out to the public representing
the company.”
It can be assumed that the students regard public
relations as the people – not a managerial function – who
are in charge of literally going out and physically meet the
organization's different publics. The image and reputation of
the organization is not viewed as the responsibility of
everyone in the organization. Instead, it is the duty of the
public relations practitioner. None of the students define
public relations in terms of managerial functions such as
strategizing or making decisions. Instead, they focus on the
tasks of socializing.
Feminists argue that the main culprit of lookism is
patriarchy. However, in Indonesia the patriarchal system is
rarely questioned—not to mention challenged—by either
men or women. As a female public relations assistant
manager of a hotel says,
“I don't think women face more challenges in their career,
because as a woman, if I feel like it's time to stop, then
we'll stop. That's not a hindrance to our career, because if
we already have children and our husbands make enough
money, then I think we should stop.”
It seems that this respondent is only pursuing her career to
spend her single years and admit that once she gets married,
the husband would become the breadwinner, and therefore
she should then quit her job. When asked whether in order for
a female practitioner to be on the same career level as male
practitioners she should be unmarried and not have kids, a
male government public relations director answers:
 D.N. Simorangkir / Women's Studies International Forum 40 (2013) 111–120
“Oh yes. If she's truly career-oriented, she will be
successful in PR. My friend, until today, is still unmarried.
She battles with her own idealism, and until today
remains unmarried…But I'm sure this applies to all
professions in Indonesia. If she wants to concentrate on
her career, become a career woman, she shouldn't be
bothered by domestic issues, family issues, right? She
should remain single!”
Likewise, several women show that women have been
socialized to accept more limited views of success. They
may have been taught that they can reach certain career
goals, but only in certain fields or only in limited career
positions. Some female respondents confess that women
voluntarily acccept these limitations as “the way things
are” for women. And because this is their God-given kodrat,
it would be unnatural for women to pursue managerial
levels, making them unfit managers. Once again, seldom
challenging the boundaries set by the patriarchal system. A
female public relations executive agrees with the previous
statement:
“Honestly, in Indonesia there are still very few female top
managers, which goes back to gender issues. The chances
of a woman to reach top level management is also very
little, looking back to what the function and role of
women really are. So for a woman to choose her career
over her family, people will surely view her as a bad
mother. Whereas men, their function and role are as
heads of the family, so they are the breadwinners, their
careers don't become a problem”.
There is also a differentiation of roles and duties between
men and women in the Indonesian society, and this
differentiation also tends to exist in the workplace. Broom
(1982) concludes that men and women differed considerably
on which roles they found themselves performing: “About
half of the women see themselves operating primarily in the
communication technician role, while more than half of the
men report the expert prescriber role as their dominant role”
(p. 21). Broom argues that this difference could not be a
result of the differences in age or experience, instead, a
gender difference. This is also true with the respondents of
this study. The following description from a male respondent
more or less summarizes the responses from the majority of
the male respondents:
“As a PR practitioner here, my role is quite complex
because we have different terms such as public relations,
public affairs, publications specialist…my role is indeed
linked to media relations, branding, internal communica-
tions, then there's CSR, government relations, event
sponsorship, that's usually the core PR role. Aside from
that, I have branding marketing, channel marketing, and
many more, so that may be the core responsibility for me
in this company's PR”.
On the other hand, most of the female respondents reveal
that their main duties are along the lines of event organizing
and supporting the marketing department. The following is a
description from a female PR manager regarding her role in
her workplace:
117
“PR's role is only as media relations, a complementary role
to marketing in holding its events, I still haven't seen any
innovative ideas. Maybe there are limitations given by the
organization, we don't know, but I think that because
there are limitations given by the higher-ups, PR in this
organization still hasn't had an influence. It's not part of
the decision-making process”.
Some respondents claim that even the type of public one
practitioner deals with is often determined by gender. For
instance, government relations is usually assigned to men,
whereas media relations is usually assigned to women. As
one senior corporate communications officer of an automo-
bile company says,
“Those who deal with the government have to be men,
because you must have a high dignity when dealing with the
government nowadays. Not that women have no dignity,
but women are more suitable dealing with journalists,
media, agencies…dealing with events. But specifically for
government, in my opinion a man is more powerful”.
This shows that not only is there a differentiation of duties
and functions between male and female practitioners, but
there is also a differentiation of which publics each gender is
entrusted with. Respondents reveal that unlike women, men
are considered to have more dignity and power, whereas
women are more suitable for technical functions and dealing
with publics that do not require such a high ‘dignity’ — to use
the respondent's term. The researcher assumes that if male
practitioners were considered more dignified and more
powerful, they would presumably have more opportunities
to advance in their careers.
Being regarded as less powerful, many respondents claim
that sometime along their careers, they have felt uncomfort-
able or threatened among male colleagues or clients:
“I've had an experience with online journalists, who asked
to be entertained by touring the city and be given ‘female
companions and more.’ I was shocked to find out that this
actually happened in the real world. They requested this
very bluntly!”
Some feel uncomfortable with the ‘locker-room jokes’
their coworkers openly tell during office hours:
“I feel uncomfortable when their conversations become
too ‘suggestive’…you know, men's talk…maybe not
during a meeting, maybe just at the office and we're all
together in one room, sometimes they make jokes that
don't sound right”.
The above comments show that sexual harassment does
exist and is a problem for public relations practitioners in
many organizations. Most practitioners, however, are uncer-
tain as to its magnitude or importance relative to other issues
in their workplace.
Since sexual harassment policies are still unheard of in
many Indonesian organizations, it is assumed that public
relations is probably not the only industry in which sexual
harassment cases are encountered. However, some of the
respondents reveal that they were harassed by clients who
118 D.N. Simorangkir / Women's Studies International Forum 40 (2013) 111–120
Table 1
Perceptions of PR professionals and students on lookism in Indonesia's PR industry.
Practitioners
1. Public relations is NOT a female profession because such assumption would
automatically link public relations to attractiveness.
2. The notion that PR is related to attractive women to woo and lobby clients
give female PR practitioners a negative image.
3. Attractiveness is also important when interacting with different publics.
4. Good looking and well dressed individuals have greater opportunities to
advance in PR.
5. Differentiation of roles and duties between male and female practitioners.
Female: event organizing and marketing support. Male: government relations,
media relations, CSR.
6. The ideal female PR manager is unmarried with no children. Marriage and
parenthood is a career obstacle only for female practitioners.
7. Female professionals are perceived to have less dignity and power compared
to male professionals.
8. Sexual harassment in the workplace.
expected ‘bonus’ services, and also journalists who expected
to be ‘entertained.’ The researcher suggests that such
harassment also has much to do with the old paradigm,
discussed previously, about public relations being associated
with attractive women whose main duty is to look good
while entertaining the clients or accompanying their bosses.
And combined with the strong patriarchal system which
holds the view that women are supposed to serve the needs
of men, sexual harassment is likely to linger in the public
relations industry even more so than in other industries
(Table 1).
Discussion and conclusion
If physical attractiveness were a prerequisite for the job,
then most likely the work revolves around tasks that require
such an appearance. Most likely, these tasks are not the tasks of
decision makers. Therefore, not only are public relations
practitioners considered unintelligent because attractiveness—
as opposed to educational background and experience—is often
a main requirement, but the work of public relations is also
often misunderstood by people of other professions, by the
management, and unfortunately, by the practitioners them-
selves, possibly leading to encroachment and stagnation.
Findings from the interviews with public relations
practitioners and students strongly indicate that lookism is
present in Indonesia's public relations industry. There is no
major difference in the perception of practitioners and the
perception of students toward the existence of lookism.
Actually, while practitioners seem to oscillate from negating
and admitting the existence of lookism, the majority of
students are fully aware of such discrimination, and even
agree that attractiveness should be highly valued in the
public relations industry.
This should be noted by public relations educators in
Indonesia. May be the biggest concern should not be to
inform and prepare the students for the realities of discrim-
inations in the public relations industry. Perhaps what is even
more important is to emphasize the managerial aspect of
public relations and the importance of critical thinking and
strategizing, rather than merely serving as frontliners.
Students
1. PR is not a female profession, even though the vast majority of students
are female.
2. High awareness of employers' tendency to prefer the physically attractive
over the nonattractive applicants.
3. Upon graduation, ready to face lookism in the job market.
4. Attractiveness equal credibility.
5. PR serves as frontliners of the organization, thus physical traits are
essential for successful career in PR.
6. The main task in public relations is to socialize.
7. The image and reputation of the organization is the sole responsibility of PR.
8. Attractiveness is associated with attires, neatness, cleanliness, and
physical traits (build, height, weight, and face).
What the respondents deem attractive, however, varies.
Some attribute it strictly to body traits while some others
attribute it to clothing styles. The latter may argue that in
their case, it cannot be considered discriminatory because
while everyone is not tall, slim, or white, a person could still
be attractive as long as he or she wears the ‘right’ clothes. It
does, nonetheless, focus – either positively or negatively – on
the practitioners' appearance and not on their job perfor-
mance. Grunig et al. (2001) warn that lookism is a kind of
concealed sexual harassment, and that along with lookism
there is also ageism — the discrimination against seniors, and
sometimes, youth. However, in Indonesia, like lookism,
ageism is also almost never questioned, as it is perfectly
normal in a company in any industry to hire people of certain
ages only, as evidenced in many classified advertisements
that state the specific maximum age of the applicants.
Therefore, the researcher believes that Indonesia's public
relations industry is promoting lookism. And this does not stop
at the recruitment process. The researcher believes that the fact
that physical attractiveness is a prerequisite for a public
relations job is an impact of the feminization of its industry.
Because of this notion, there are those who believe that public
relations practitioners have to entertain and accompany clients
and bosses—who are usually male. For these tasks, it is no
surprise, then, the companies prefer to hire attractive young
women. Even when this is not the case, and even if the
company also hired male practitioners, the division of labor is
often based on gender. Women are usually assigned to deal
with the media and to tackle marketing endeavors, whereas
men are often assigned to deal with government officials.
As a feminized profession, public relations is dominated by
women in numbers, but dominated by men in power and
responsibility. From a feminist perspective, men's focusing on
women's physical attributes is an example of men's degrada-
tion of women's professionalism, which means that its
practitioners are often considered incompetent to be part of
the elite management group. And because in Indonesia, public
relations is often regarded as mere frontliners of the organiza-
tion, an emphasis on the visual is placed on the practitioners.
This, once again, promotes lookism. So much so that it has
become a common notion – even among students – that public
relations is equivalent to attractiveness.
 D.N. Simorangkir / Women's Studies International Forum 40 (2013) 111–120
Furthermore, sexual harassment particularly jeopardizes
public practitioners as they strive to move into managerial
positions (Toth, Serini, Wright, & Emig, 1997). If sexual
harassment were used to continue to control women in the
organization, then women who do rise to managerial
positions, will be powerless. As sex objects, they will lack
the ability to speak with credibility, and that will reflect,
ultimately, on the perception of the public relations in
general and will continue to drag down the role and level at
which the practitioner – male or female – functions. That
change must come from a fundamental shift in social, cultural,
and organizational structures. The researcher, like others
before her, knows that transforming society is not as simple
as it might seem on paper. Nonetheless, without moving
toward eradicating sexual harassment – and lookism –
Indonesian companies will never fully experience the benefits
that public relations can offer.
No literature on the importance of attractiveness in public
relations has been found, especially in Western countries.
Perhaps this is an Asian characteristic, or even a strictly
Indonesian characteristic. The researcher suggests that
further research needs to be done on this topic. Nevertheless,
results from the interviews have clearly shown a link
between lookism in public relations and the perception of
public relations as frontliners whose main function is to
socialize and maintain the organization's good image.
It seems that an effective way of creating a balanced
industry may be to reassess how public relations is
promoted to both males and females in universities.
Educators have to focus on the managerial functions of
public relations. One way to do this is by adding business
management courses to the curriculum (it should be noted
that in many Indonesian universities, courses such as table
manners and etiquette are still part of the public relations
curriculum). However as long as traditional stereotypes are
held and employers consider factors other than competence
and skill in recruitment, bias is likely to prevail. It is
important to recognize that lookism is indeed a form of
discrimination, one which impacts not only the individual
practitioners, but the entire industry.
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