the ugly truth of beauty

Beauty and Bias in the Service Industry

Beauty is a deception. Beauty emanates from the facial presence of a woman that helps to assess the degree to which one is desirable. The beauty of a person is also the basis for the customer to get tips from clients who are satisfied with their looks. On the other hand, individuals that are considered to have less favorable looks are also discriminated against. The service sector plays a leading role in cases of prejudice on the basis of appearance. There are also situations in which a waiter or waitress gets a tip depending on his or her presence. Additionally, there are cases and indices where an employee may earn a higher gratuity based on his or her appearance compared to the employees who are affirmed not to be as attractive. This paper discusses the bias within the workplace in the service industry based on appearance.

Discrimination and Appearance

Looks are the last bastion of discrimination. Discrimination refers to the treatment that is channeled against an individual based on the rank, physical appearance and classification of a given person within the society (Anderson 19). Discrimination is often pegged on the physical and social characteristics that are upheld by the community. The characteristics include gender, race, physical appearance, sexual orientation, background, class and the ethnic origin of a person. Discrimination leads to the acts of bigotry and partisanship within the service industry whereby some staff is guaranteed of benefits at the expense of equality with the other employees of the same organization.

Discrimination Based on Beauty in the Service Sector

Various companies within the service sector, particularly the hospitality industry permit discrimination based on beauty. Most employees, particularly the front office staff and the waiters, are employed based on their physical attractiveness and the ability to attract the customers. Studies have affirmed that the physical attractiveness of staff could lead to the persuasion of a client to seek the services of a given hospitality firm irrespective of the quality of services. Within the hospitality sector, there is an adage that affirms that beauty is everything. With beauty, one has the command of the attention of prospective clients. Objectively, the issue of discrimination based on the physical appearance is a narrow-minded view (Berry 29). However, for the leaders in the service industry, the looks of their staff constitute part of their brand, and some qualified prospective staff can be dropped if they are not found to be as attractive as the other relatively lowly qualified potential employees.

The Passive Acceptance of Discrimination

Concisely, many companies are aware that discrimination is abhorred and could lead to penalties. As such, discrimination based on the physical characteristics of an individual is passively allowed by the management. The sole purpose of encouraging such nature of perception is the volume of profits that the companies seek to earn. The issue of discrimination in the workplace has the potential of leading to hefty fines being filed against the perpetrator of discrimination (Frater 147). However, the discrimination that is based on looks is hard to classify in the discrimination suits since the benefactor is a victim of circumstance since the benefits are based on his or her looks, to which he or she has no control over. While earning a given form of advantages based on looks may be affirmed to constitute discrimination, nothing can be done since beauty represents the brand of the service industry in all parts of the world.

Works Cited

Anderson, Terry H. The Pursuit of Fairness: A History of Affirmative Action. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Internet resource.

Berry, Bonnie. Beauty Bias: Discrimination and Social Power. Westport, Conn: Praeger Publishers, 2007. Print.

Frater, Rhiannon. The Last Bastion of the Living: A Futuristic Zombie Novel. Place of publication not identified: Rhiannon Frater, 2012. Print.