We all agree discrimination is wrong. Some believe government should get involved to fight discrimination. The government has gotten heavily involved in protecting racial and ethnic minorities, women, the disabled and other groups from discrimination. One group still faces terrible discrimination.

The ugly. Discriminated against at school, discriminated against in the workplace, discriminated against in their social life. Should government take a role to end discrimination against the ugly. (This does not specifically pertain to me.However, I do have some ugly friends.)

How would we do this? Do we force companies to hire more ugly people. What is ugly anyway. What about fat people, stupid people and unskilled people. Is it possbile to make people not discriminate against ugly people? As humans we like to look at beautiful people, can we change that?

Ugly is hard to define. you know it when you see it.

How ugly? Quasimodo ugly or Terry Bradshaw ugly?

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.

Madtown

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but, ugly is ugly.

This is in the Domestic Policy Debate. Are we to actually debate this seriously?

let me get to my point. the point is that there are many different groups that can be discriminated against. My guess is that ugly people are discriminated against as much, or more, than any racial or ethnic group. The government's role should be to allow individuals and companies to discriminate but insure that governments do not.

I want to join the UGLY social activities group! We...I mean they have been discriminated against far to long. There should be quotas in the public and private sectors, for every 2 pretty people you have to have one homely one. Lets all get together and file a big class action law suit on behalf of all the ugly people being discriminated against.

I think we also need to fight for government subsidized plastic surgery, subsidized alcohol (we look better when people are drunk), affirmative action programs and more ugly people on TV.

A study giving evidence of the battles UGLY people must face is here

Would you accept 'tokens' in your organization?

You do not have to be ugly to join the Union of Gross Looking Yahoos, just sympathetic to our cause.

As a self hating ugly person I personally swear here and now to forever discriminate against all ugly people forever and ever, amen.

We may never see the promised land, but hopefully our grandchildren will see a day where a man is judged by the beauty of his soul and not the pimples on his face.

This is a subject I have often contemplated. I am glad to see that some economists are taking the issue seriously.
Unfortunately, the impact of personal appearance is an issue from birth. Here’s a link indicating the bias towards attractive children:
attractiveness impact


I think our course is obvious. We must initiate incentive programs for the ugly, starting from birth. Education is the key to tackling a problem of this magnitude. Children must be instructed on the dangers of judging a person solely on their level of attractiveness. If a child is particularly unattractive, special status preference should be permitted in the classroom. Every teacher must be accountable for the grades he/ she assigns each child. If there is an unusual disparity between the grades, indicating a preferential treatment, the teacher should be held accountable.
Likewise, when the adolescent reaches adulthood, there should be mandatory incentives for dating the ugly. Perhaps a quota system of sorts. At least one ugly date out of every five.
We cannot, as a free society, allow appearance discrimination to continue. I believe by concentrating on the younger generation and educating them against such insensitivity, we may eventually overcome this scourge.

Mrspiggy,
As a free society what we can not do is tell people what they can not do. Educating people so as to create a society free of something we deem evil is paramount to brainwashing....just let time go by and as the past has shown and Booker T. Washington knew, Society will change for the better and leave the ignorant behind. That is how it has always been.

I'm not being entirely serious here, Johnlocke. It's in the casual conversation forum now I don't think there's any way to 'educate people out of' the appearance disparity. One person's ugly is another's beauty, and the definition of beauty changes with the times.

I originally found that link (about attractiveness impact) when I was looking for an old link I read long ago. It showed that there was a disparity between the way mothers perceived their own children. Babies who were 'cuter' were judged by the mothers to be less fussy and more agreeable in general. Sad as it is, even a mother's love isn't entirely blind (or so it would seem).

Editted to add: Did 'At least one ugly date out of every five, mandatory' really sound like a serious suggestion?

I don't see discrimination against ugly going away on it's own.

Give ugly people a million dollars each. Some of them will spend some of it on plastic surgery, smarter clothes, and so on.

But they'll all become miraculously more attractive to the opposite sex (or the same sex, if that's their thing).

The trouble with ugly is that it's not only subjective, it's comparative (as is beauty). There are a (very) few people that are objectively ugly or beautiful - the fringes of the bell curve. Most of the rest of us are only ugly or beautiful when compared to someone else.

In the two-photo experiments, I can see how you'd attribute negative things to the uglier of the two photos. However, you could use the same photo twice, once with a better-looking kid, and once with an uglier one, and the responses would be completely different.

But the uglier person loses in both comparisons. I may win when compared to Quasimodo and lose when compared to Tom Cruise;but in both cases the uglier guy loses.(Assuming I am bettter looking than Quasimodo) Job interviews and job promotions often end up as a contest between two individuals, it seems studies indicate employer discrimination against the plainer applicant.

I know this thread is not entirely serious, but this is a really interesting link related to this topic: Beautycheck

That was an interesting link, Cyan. I'm curious why attractiveness is so important. Survival of the species? What does one's facial symmetry have to do with that? Pretty weird, when you really think about it.

It is weird. It's also very strange that the faces that people thought were the most attractive were often physical impossibilities.