Posted Jan. 11 on a People magazine Web site was the headline: "Were You a Real-Life Ugly Betty?"
The "were" of the headline implies the magazine is looking for past "Ugly Bettys," but the few short paragraphs afterward leave a different impression.
Act Now! Activate a FREE three days trial to AdvertisingCrossing.com, because you know how important it is to know about all the jobs.
BEAUTY'S FACE - Our notions of what we consider attractive may be rooted in our DNA. CNS Illustration by Scott Adrian Hinton.
"Do you know what it feels like to be smart, hardworking, and completely underrated because of the way you look? ...
"People is looking for real-life 'Ugly Bettys,' who, like the character America Ferrara plays on the popular TV show, are 'an ordinary girl - a slightly plump plain-Jane,' as ABC puts it. ..."
Were you? Are you? The magazine must have felt a twinge of rudeness because the request ends on an oddly upbeat note: "And remember, ugly is the new beautiful!"
To which Peoria, Ill.-based sculptor Preston Jackson says, "I have never seen a so-called ugly person in my life."
Jackson might be that rare human totally unburdened by notions of what beauty is.
In People magazine lingo, "ordinary," "slightly plump" and "plain-Jane" - singularly "average" adjectives - flatten into an unsightly "ugly." Elsewhere on the Web site, People explores bikini-ready diets, a Brazilian model's death from anorexia-related complications, a 12-year-old who underwent liposuction, former supermodel Christie Brinkley's fabulous new look after a divorce scandal and Tyra Banks, another ex-supermodel, defending herself in the wake of tabloid charges that, at 5 feet 11 inches and 160 pounds, she's let herself get too fat.
What to make of the appearance of a national obsession with appearance?
Is it any wonder more and increasingly more of us pump billions annually into health clubs, hair salons, Botox injections and expensive surgeries like breast lifts and liposuction, strictly for cosmetic reasons?
Lori Daniels, an antiques dealer-turned-artist, recalls, at 8 or 9, how she thought she'd be beautiful if she were thin. By her 20s, she thought beauty equalled thin and blond.
By her late 40s, she had had an eye-lift, a face-lift and an arm-lift.
"Your face is like the door to a house," she says. "First impressions are really important."
Decades of psychological research on perceptions and consequences of physical beauty back her up.
Frank McAndrew, a psychology professor at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., points to numerous studies that suggest people considered physically attractive get better treatment, starting at birth.
Mothers bond more readily with cute babies. Handsome men earn more money. Landlords are more likely to rent to people they deem attractive. One study found people judged better looking, on average, lived longer. Another found that candidates who appeared to look more competent than their opponents were more likely to win congressional races.
Even attractive burglars tend to get shorter sentences when convicted of the crime. And in the case of rape victims, according to an old study, the more attractive the victim, the longer the sentence.
It boils down to what researchers call "the halo effect," a tendency to bestow outwardly beautiful people with inwardly beautiful characteristics.
"This plays out in all kinds of subtle ways," McAndrew says.
The research that has influenced him most is well documented. Babies, given a choice, will focus on more attractive faces over less attractive faces.
In McAndrew's view, based on evolutionary psychological studies around the world, views about beauty are not set by culture and media as much as they are hard-wired into our DNA.
"That's not to say the media doesn't carry it to extremes," he adds. "But I think that impact is overblown. If that was true, you'd find standards of beauty are very different from place to place and that standards would be different throughout history."
Instead, researchers have found that notions of beauty are built on set codes, so to speak, often found in nature or relating to natural desires to carry on the species. For instance, both men and women considered attractive - regardless of culture, history or ethnicity - have more symmetrical features, a trait also true of animals.
While ideal body sizes for women might change with the times, waist-to-hip ratios of the ideal have remained constant through different cultures and history. Tallness with broad shoulders and upper body strength is a defining standard of male attractiveness that never changes, McAndrew notes.
"To cut to the core, what we find beautiful are things that signal that people are healthy and fertile," he says. "Clear skin, a pretty face, symmetrical features indicate someone is healthy and free of diseases and parasites."
Ironically, Jackson, the sculptor who has never seen a "so-called ugly" face, is drawn to a distinctly asymmetrical view, the profile, when he's sculpting a face.
Daniels says her artistic pursuits have broadened her concept of beauty.
And what if someone doesn't have those visual cues to go by?
Carol Warren, president of the board of Peoria Area Blind People's Center, uses her ears, her imagination and, if she knows someone well, her sense of touch to gauge physical beauty.
"I know a lot about voices, tone, inflection," she says. "Music makes a difference, too. I can imagine somebody looking a lot better when the music's nice."
It would be interesting, McAndrew says, to do a comparative study of how blind people judge beauty using voices to research projects that have shown people can reliably judge attractiveness over the telephone.
As for the media images, he points out that even "Ugly Betty" isn't really ugly.
"And the Tyra Banks thing, I'm not sure what that's about - she still looks pretty good to me."
AdvertisingCrossing Fact #75: Those who subscribe to AdvertisingCrossing will find jobs more easily than those who don’t because they will be able to view all information on all jobs.
Julie , Chicago, IL
AdvertisingCrossing is too good and very user friendly. The best feature is the submission of the resume and cover letter online. The search engines are also very fast.
Stephen , Potomac, MD
AdvertisingCrossing and its services are very impressive. I am grateful to the customer service representatives as they were very helpful. I would definitely recommend the website to my friends.
Stephen , Lake Oswego, OR
I appreciate the online application of resume and cover letter on AdvertisingCrossing. It saves a great deal of time. The site's advance search engine is also fantastic.
Alexander , Pittsburgh, PA
AdvertisingCrossing is easy for searching jobs through geographic locations. You can find a job in almost every region in the United States.
Maribeth , Mason, MI
The best thing about AdvertisingCrossing is that some of its job listings just cannot be found on any other job site. Incredible performance!
To compare AdvertisingCrossing with other job sites
Why People Prefer AdvertisingCrossing to Other Job Sites
"Using people and sophisticated technology, we search tens of thousands of employer websites, newspaper classified sites, job boards, government sites, public interest sites and more looking for jobs for you."
Using salespeople they call employers and try and get them to pay hundreds of dollars for a job posting
We bring all of the jobs we find into our database.
The job site only posts jobs in its site that companies pay to post.
We filter all the jobs and show you what we find that matches your interests.
They only bring in the jobs to their database that employers pay to post on their site.
We keep a low profile (we do not advertise) and only allow subscribers on our site so there are fewer applications for the jobs we find.
The job site allows any job seekers with an Internet connection, free access. It aggressively advertises the job site to bring as many job seekers as they can to each job, so employers are flooded with applications and will pay to post again.
Advertising Sales Partner United States-MI-Oak Park
Six-year-old, full-service advertising agency seeks a Sales Partner responsible for all advertising sales in the Detroit area. Red Rocket is growin...
See Every Advertising Job We Can Find on the Internet!
Unlike other sites, AdvertisingCrossing works for you and does not charge employers to post jobs and actually goes out and researches jobs for you. The jobs you see are the jobs we find for you and not the ones employers are paying us to post.
To compare AdvertisingCrossing with other job sites
Top 101 Reasons to Sign Up for AdvertisingCrossing
Reason 13: AdvertisingCrossing lets you apply online and emails you copies of the applications you send to employers, all electronically. No more stamps or time-consuming trips to the post office.
AdvertisingCrossing - #1 Job Aggregation and Private Job-Opening Research Service — The Most Quality Jobs Anywhere
AdvertisingCrossing is the first job consolidation service in the employment industry to seek to include every job that exists and not charge employers to post jobs on its site.
AdvertisingCrossing uses sophisticated technology and manual work to comb employer websites and other job boards for jobs and bring them all to its site.
Why Try AdvertisingCrossing Now?
"Using people and sophisticated technology, we search tens of thousands of employer websites, newspaper classified sites, job boards, government sites, public interest sites and more looking for jobs for you."
