People-Watchers Beware: Don’t Let Lookism be the Lenses in Your Binoculars — By Dr. Laura Triplett

Do you ever stop to wonder how we have allowed society to reach this point? That point being the moment in time when it became acceptable to comment or question a woman’s physical appearance, and in particular, her weight? If you have turned on the television, listened to the radio, logged onto the Internet, opened a magazine or even had a casual conversation with a friend, you are likely to have either been exposed to or participated in a discussion about another woman’s weight. And the sense of entitlement – perhaps you have noticed that society seems to feel it’s literally owed an explanation for why a woman looks the way she does – that accompanies our doing this brings up a very important question, “Why the heck are we doing this?”

What we are doing is known as Lookism and it is one of the most common, albeit harmful, forms of stereotyping. And unfortunately, women are subjected to it to a far greater degree than their male counterparts. It is a simple process that, in part, involves using a person’s physical appearance to make assumptions and judgments about who that person is. Recall the last time you met someone new; before you even interacted with her you used physical characteristics to draw conclusions about who she is. For example, you might have interpreted her blonde hair to mean that she lacks intelligence or thought her black sweater was evidence that she suffers from depression. For a woman, weight is the most defining characteristic others use to make judgments about who she is; weight cues perception about everything: From how likeable she is to whether she can be trusted.

And as bogus as we all know this is, Lookism endures. We were not born to be Lookists, rather we have been socially schooled to find certain physical characteristics more desirable than others. Worse, we have allowed the media to set unrealistic standards for female aesthetics that are so ridiculous, women should be amassing right now…gathering for a mammoth uprising against outrageous beauty expectations. We should march on…well…on the offices of Vogue and the headquarters of Cover Girl to tell them that we will no longer let them decide what women should look like!

But, alas, we don’t assemble…we never gather…and we certainly haven’t risen up against the absurd expectations that women should look like Barbie (even if looking like Barbie means that women are forced to walk on all fours because the unrealistic proportions of the teeny-tiny plastic standard to which we are endlessly compared, would make it impossible to stand erect). Instead, we idly stand by while Jennifer Love Hewitt, a size two, is chastised for looking too heavy on her Hawaiian vacation, and while Eva Longoria Parker has to deny pregnancy rumors because, apparently, she dared to eat, and while one of the female contestants on Bravo’s “Make Me a Supermodel” was told her legs were too “jiggly” and could never be put “on a runway” (as if they were autonomous from their owner and had the option of walking on their own) because it would be too “horrifying” for the fashionistas and glitterati lining the catwalk.

So, why the heck are we doing this? And why are we letting it be done to us? Women should want to be healthy. And happy. And most importantly, real. I can’t speak for you, but I would much rather walk erect than join my dog on all fours even if this means I’ll never look like Barbie. How a woman looks should not be anyone’s business, but her own. No woman should care more about how a woman looks than herself. And when a woman cares most about how she looks – and forgoes letting Lookism be her guide – she will be healthier, happier, and more real than ever before.