Venus And Our Collective Neuroses

The fall of the fair-skinned? Not at this time.

(Courtesy of kumukutitap.com)

Watching the Venus Raj story in MMK (Maalaala Mo Kaya) highlighted a few things, some we already knew but never wanted to admit.

1. We are racists. In this country, white skin equals beautiful, dark skin means shame and ridicule.

2. We love the underdog. A large part of Manny Pacquiao's appeal is his rise from humble beginnings. The same can be said of Venus Raj's story. She was regularly made fun of for not being fair skinned, and went on to win Bb. Pilipinas.

3. It shouldn't be, but our self-esteem is largely tied to how we look. We should just hope that we are the "current flavor" for beauty pageants and advertisers.

4. Teachers have a free pass to be involved with students, the loophole being that these students have low self-esteem to begin with. (To be fair, Venus' mom was against the relationship from the start.)

5. Joining pageants to earn money to help the family gives it a sheen of nobility of purpose.

6. It's disturbing for a woman found laughable because of her dark skin to seek validation from an industry that promotes the unreal ideal of "perfect" body measurments and looks from its' participants. But then we decry corrupt politicians all the time and continue voting for them the following elections. So it's par for the course.

7. Mothers have the final say. Period.

8. I wish this country understood that being valued for your looks is not female empowerment, or feminism at work, it is the precise opposite of what the movement stands for. (I was just informed that there are only 1000 of us in a country of 100 million citizens who believe this.)

9. Venus' story is supposed to be the triumph of the dark-skinned over the fair. While her story was on break, I was regaled with ads for whitening creams.

10. The current career path of Venus as a host ensures that beauty pageants will always be filled with women wanting their share of the spotlight.

And so, here we are, circa 2012.

"Face" It: Beauty - Truly - Is Power

And this is borne out in research.

(Photo above courtesy of BarrioSiete.com)

This post represents a fitting complement to my previous one. (http://theguywithablog.blogspot.com/2011/08/will-someone-kindly-explain-what-those.html)

After all, while I generally scoff at how physical attributes are valued over one's intellectual capacities or emotional maturity, it is a (sad) fact of life that having this currency - beauty - makes the bearer's life much easier, richer (and I mean that in a financial sense) and more exciting - compared to someone who doesn't carry the "cash".

We've all known this fact since we were young: People who were on the attractive side tended to get much admiration and leeway from authority figures, and were probably the most popular kids from our memory vault: It's rare that someone was well-known back then other than for beauty - unless you were the school druggie who dropped out (you can achieve fame or notoriety, which would be flip sides of the same coin). When we pore through yearbooks or discuss school nostalgia, inevitably we find ourselves thinking about who were the most good looking ones.

It's a good thing to learn that fact early on, because even as adults, we remain ensnared with the potency of beauty's touch - and what this actually translates to in real-life terms.

 As Ken Eisold, Ph.D., writes in Psychology Today, quoting research conducted by Newsweek, ""Handsome men earn, on average, 5 percent more than their less-attractive counterparts (good-looking women earn 4 percent more); pretty people get more attention from teachers, bosses, and mentors." (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hidden-motives/201007/the-power-beauty)

And here I thought the only way beauty was translated to actual monetary gain was either through beauty pageants or the escort service industry.

Besides, who could forget the claim of  90's "supermodel" Linda Evangelista, who (playfully) claimed, "We don't wake up for less than $10,000 a day."? (http://www.cassiecarpenter.com/post/3316805798/we-dont-wake-up-for-less-than-10-000-a-day-a) Is it a wonder then that countless others wish to partake of the "modeling pie", where you are basically paid for how you look, walk or are seen in designer clothes? When I hear of models whining about how hard their "job" is, I have had to stifle the urge to get a barf bag: How hard can a job be when it only demands that you be the luckiest person in the genetic lottery? Where's the "work" in that? Either you have it or you don't, period.

If you aren't part of "the lucky ones", don't despair: Beauty is available in a jar - or so they claim. Cosmetic companies - with revenues in billions of dollars - promise to wipe away the years off your face - for a fee, of course, this isn't a charitable project. Slick advertising portrays the opportunities and doors that will be opened to you if you are considered "beautiful". And just like what PANA (Philippine Association of National Advertisers) claims as its' byline, there really is "Truth In Advertising".

Directly quoting from the Newsweek research mentioned above that surveyed 202 corporate hiring managers, as well as 964 members of the public, this is what they found: "Fifty-seven percent of hiring managers [said] unattractive candidates are likely to have a harder time landing a job, while more than half advised spending as much time and money on ‘making sure they look attractive' as on perfecting a résumé. When it comes to women, apparently, flaunting (our) assets works: 61 percent of managers (the majority of them men) said it would be an advantage for a woman to wear clothing showing off her figure at work."

This reminded me of the survey that my friends from the UP School of Economics conducted - they won that year for the best undergraduate thesis university-wide - where they presented actual HR (Human Resources) managers with two equivalent resumes, one with a more obviously physically attractive appearance - and overwhelmingly, the "prettier" candidate always got  the (hypothetical) job when asked "which of these 2 candidates would you hire"?

I have had to think twice about knocking those who lean too much on their beauty to get ahead in life. When scientific research is practically unanimous in announcing that beauty is an actual advantage in the workplace - other than the jaw-dropping awe everyone exhibits upon seeing a near-perfect specimen of humanity - it may be time to stop writing beauty off as a factor that is merely trivial or frivolous.

Upon closer inspection, it may spell the difference in getting the job or not.