Looks
Looks: Why They Matter More Than You Ever Imagined is written by Gordon L. Patzer, Ph.D., founding director of the Appearance Research Institute and a tenured professor at Roosevelt University in Chicago. Dr. Patzer has investigated “lookism” and the physical attractiveness phenomenon for more than thirty years. I was fascinated by his research and appalled by many of the stories including one about a woman chosen to be on, and then rejected by, the Extreme Makeover reality show.
From the publisher:
It’s true that beauty pays. Better grades, success in romance, higher salaries -these are just a few of the well-documented advantages bestowed upon the good looking at the expense of everyone else. But the beauty fixation gets even uglier than that. A constant flood of images celebrating the thin and glamorous has triggered deadly eating disorders, dangerous cosmetic surgeries, and unhealthy obsessions that are affecting women and men of all ages-even young children.
Dr. Gordon L. Patzer has spent more than thirty years studying this phenomenon. Here he uses original research to provide a unique examination of physical attractiveness and how it has changed the lives of both men and women.Looks is the first book to explore how attractiveness affects every aspect of our lives-from whom we choose to befriend and hire to the candidates we choose to elect and whom we presume to be innocent or guilty in a court of law. Unflinching and revealing, Looks uncovers the sometimes ugly truth about beauty and its profound effects on all of us.