Aesthetic Discrimination

This article examines a very common phenomenon in our society which remains widely unacknowledged and undertheorized: the problem of aesthetic discrimination. This concept designates a series of discriminatory practices that uses personal appearance as a criterion for judging the professional capacity, a pattern that negatively affects a significant number of people, especially women and members of racial minorities. This essay develops an analysis of aesthetic discrimination capable of offering an understanding of its internal dynamics and its relationship with other arbitrary practices that impede equal access to professional opportunities based on theories of discrimination, sociological studies on beauty and the social psychology of discrimination.

Keywords:
Discrimination; Aesthetic; Appearance; Beauty; Inequality; Injustice; Racism; Sexism