NURSAIDATUL NAJIHAH BINTI SHARIFF (82872) GROUP 39

Beauty Privilege: A thing at the workplace?

Do you think that beauty privilege is actually a ‘privilege’ or a ‘pitfall’? According to Marson
and Hessmiller (2016), researchers have founded that attractive people gain extra advantages related
to procuring jobs with higher salaries, and going through a subconsciously higher level of cordiality
than less attractive people since the early 1960s. Personally, I believe that beauty privilege is real in
our society, and it does not occur specifically just in a small area but also occurs in the workplace
which may lead to being an issue there. An economist, Eva Sierminska reported in 2015 revealed that
attractive employees earn up to 15% more compared to their less conventionally attractive
counterparts (Get Ahead by LinkedIn News, 2022). The thing that inspired me to write this critical
response is a tweet posted by Fakhri Fitri on Twitter, where he talks about a beauty privilege that
woman Malaysian actors, Janna Nick and Amelia Henderson are experiencing, and he also labeled
them as ‘selling their faces’ for being pretty in the industry. The tweet received various opinions from
other users and some of them were disagreeing with what Fakhri said because they believe that those
actors are also really talented, and that beauty they have was not the only reason for their success. In
this critical response, I will be discussing how beauty privilege affects one’s career and whether are
they the ones to get blamed for being attractive.

American Economic Review, a 2006 report found that physically attractive workers are more
confident, and it leads to an increase in wages especially when they interact with employers (Get
Ahead by LinkedIn News, 2022). Scripps News (2015) mentioned that a 2010 Newsweek surveyed
more than a thousand people and discovered that 72% of people were convinced being attractive was
an advantage to women during job interviews. From my personal experience, my mother who is
currently a worker in the Electrical Engineering field treated differently by the male workers when she
was supervising the workers’ handling machines at a site and was not encouraged to do such work
because men are expected to do it compared to woman, as she is usually the only woman present.
Anne Bono, the vice president for marketing and consumer engagement at Penguin Random House
believed in any industry, beauty privilege is prevalent but particularly common in male-dominated
industries. This phenomenon is also called the Halo Effect stated by Azzam Iffah in ML Studio
(2021), which is referred to as a stereotype of physical attractiveness and the so-called principle “what
is beautiful is also good”. Although there is no rational reason to believe that looks correlate with
intelligence and honesty, a good-looking person will be perceived as being brilliant and trustworthy. A
story about an intelligent but less attractive girl told in a journal by Marson and Hessmiller (2016)
proved that this beauty privilege is unfair when she unfolded the truth about the discrimination she
received from the law office staff during her internship led her to decide not to pursue her dream to be
a lawyer. Although some studies may deny the effect that beauty privilege actually has, I am fully
convinced that favoritism and bias coexist clearly with beauty privilege.

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NURSAIDATUL NAJIHAH BINTI SHARIFF (82872) GROUP 39

Now a question pops into my mind, do we have the right to blame those good-looking people
for getting the extra advantages? In my opinion, it is wrong to attack or hate them for gaining more
benefits than less-attractive people because the beauty they have is an advantage that is totally
unearned but it is the stigma that needs to be eliminated from the societies. A veteran Malaysian
singer A. M. Salim Abdul Majeed or known as Saleem Iklim stated that he was not happy with how
today’s music industry is filled with ‘instant’ singers that gain popularity easily for their looks
(Mahmud, 2016). Also, he mentioned that the true talent he has was the main reason that strengthen
his career despite having a less-attractive face, and believed that the new singers that ‘selling their
faces’ may not remain long in the industry. On the other hand, a politician candidate in Pakatan
Harapan Party, Farzana Hayani Mohd Nasir was assertively hoping and rejected the idea of being
voted to win just for her beauty but also judge her sincerity and enthusiasm to help the community
(Hamid, 2021). This clearly shows that beauty privilege is once again, unearned and I respect and
admire her for not using the privilege she had selfishly in her career.

In conclusion, this pervasive bias known as beauty privilege or lookism is a thing to ponder in
the workplace and it is important to use the privilege to help others if one recognizes that he or she
has it. Although beauty privilege may affect one’s career positively, we have no rights to blame them
100% for that unless it is crystal clear that they bring unnecessary influences to others. The privilege
should not be wasted but must be used beneficially to assist others so that at least these good-looking
people have more to offer and eliminate the stigma that is thrown recklessly at them. For me, it is
important to fully understand the two similar concepts fairness and equality, but they have different
meanings to avoid this stigma. Mansour (2020) mentioned that an organization should optimize
performance to succeed and achieve organizational goals in a fair manner, he also explained that the
definition of fairness is treating people according to their needs while equality means everybody in the
room is getting the exact same treatment. Lastly, we should be the best version of ourselves and
practice confidence in any field we are pursuing as by that we will eventually shine brighter than
others without getting judged by our appearance solely and have strong determination on the dreams
we have.

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NURSAIDATUL NAJIHAH BINTI SHARIFF (82872) GROUP 39

References

Get Ahead by LinkedIn News. (2022, December). Is There a 'Pretty Privilege' in the Workplace?
Retrieved April 27, 2023, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pretty-privilege-workplace-
get-ahead-by-linkedin-news/

Hamid, R. A. (2021, November 11). Saya tak jual rupa, nilai saya pada tekad - Nana.
MalaysiaGazette. Retrieved April 30, 2023, from
https://malaysiagazette.com/2021/11/11/saya-tak-jual-rupa-nilai-saya-pada-tekad-nana/

Mahmud, F. S. (2016, December 14). Penyanyi baharu sekadar jual rupa - Saleem. Berita Harian.
Retrieved April 30, 2023, from https://www.bharian.com.my/bhplus-
old/2016/12/223848/penyanyi-baharu-sekadar-jual-rupa-saleem

Mansour, T. (2020, November 25). Fairness & Equality - An Organization Dilemma! Linked In.
Retrieved April 28, 2023, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fairness-equality-
organization-dilemma-tarek-mansour/

Marson, S. M., & Hessmiller, J. (2016, July). The Dark Side of Being Pretty. Journal of Sociology and
Social Work, 4(1), 58-59. http://dx.doi.org/10.15640/jssw.v4n1a8

ML Studio. (2021, June 25). Beauty Privilege dan Halo Effect. Youtube. Retrieved April 28, 2023,
from https://youtu.be/m4X8vWmCsNA

Scripps News. (2015, September 11). A Look At How Attractiveness Affects The Workplace - Newsy.
YouTube. Retrieved April 28, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_Ypu1-1bQ8

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