<p>^^^ You said what I have been trying to say very eloquently. I very much admire people like your brother.</p>
<p>^Very good and admirable by me.</p>
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<p>Yeah, I have the same reaction to 60 year old women with long platinum blonde hair.</p>
<p>^Any very heavy person, as we are collectively paying for somebody who does not take care of themselves. However, I would never under any circumstance would impose my feeling on anybody with excessive size. As I said, simply out of my control and will result only in hostility (and rightfully so)
I am not even anyhow disturbed or financially affected by someone with huge holes in theri ears or other things. I actully sometime watch that show on TV as TV gets excessively boring. This show is about accepting everybody, even those who call themselves freaks.</p>
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<p>My guess is that an applicant with gauges and facial piercings would not get the interview if there was an equally qualified person. In many hospitals a person, if hired for any position that had patient interface, with gauges and facial piercings would be asked to remove their jewelry when working. I think tats that show in a head shot might also be a no-no for someone applying but as long as they can be covered in clothing or scrubs would be OK.</p>
<p>Like any professional setting, most employers don’t know and don’t care if you can cover the tats, but many employers do care if you are customer facing position. The medical profession while getting “used” to tats (that can be covered) are far from receptive to facial piercings and ear mutilation. </p>
<p>Busdriver has some good points. You choose the profession and if the profession has expectations about it’s workforce then that is the cards you are dealt. To a certain extent the employee is “valued” for understanding that conformity. It’s really not about the individual…it’s about how that individual “fits” the company or the industry. Doesn’t mean it won’t be different in twenty or thirty years as it has certainly changed from the seventies to now, but right now the image you project has much to do with everything and frankly ear guages and facial piercing and tats the cover huge portions of the body are still “outlier” societal behavior.</p>
<p>Not knowing anything about med schools-is the reason they ask for photos to weed out the “outliers”? Or is there something more unsettling to it-to round out the numbers of AA, Asians, Caucasians, etc.? Are you in trouble if you’re heavy? Have thick glasses? Has there ever been a case where someone was looking like a shoo-in until their photo was sent in?</p>
<p>It seems to me that this would open up the door to some outright discrimination-what if the person doing the choosing doesn’t like black hair/round faces/Asians/blue eyes, etc? I know this is derailing so you can answer by PM if you want.</p>
<p>I have to laugh at the notion that tat and piercings are somehow an expression of “individuality”. Those who choose that stye are just choosing a different group of lemmings than those who don’t. You have a ring in your nose, gauges and sleeve tattoos? Guess what, you look like everybody else who has a ring, gauges and sleeve tats, and you’re choosing to identify, and be identified, with that group. My store has a significant college student clientele. The kids with extensive tats and piercings all look alike and hang together. Not an iota of individualism there.</p>
<p>Piercings and tattoos and gauged ears are not the only things that are issues. Yes, heavy people face discrimination, people who look a certain way, certain ethnicities, races. the way you dress, the way you speak, your body language, etc. The nice things about the piercings, et al, is that if you are careful with how you do these things, they can often be covered for certain occasions. Not so if you are AA or have an accent or your name is Hussein. </p>
<p>So I am not so sympathetic with those who are upset that there are consequences for certain looks.</p>
<p>I don’t think photos are much of an issue in terms of picking out students, considering those I see chosen. Med students and doctors are not exactly the Barbies and Kens of the population.</p>
<p>The other day, one of my students came to class with a nose ring. I blurted out, “Why did you do that? You are so handsome.” He told me that I sounded like his mother. Yup. Hope I do not get a complaint filed against me.</p>
<p>I normally do not react much to tattoos, wild hair, or much of anything. I am not crazy about gauges though.</p>
<p>“Yes, heavy people face discrimination…”</p>
<p>Some professions absolutely require a certain degree of fitness. I’m not even talking about firefighters or police officers; for example, a veterinarian working with large animals has to be able to control his/her patients.</p>
<p>^ And airline attendants need to be able to fit down the aisles of the planes w/o turning sideways or bumping against passengers in aisle seats, now getting so narrow the carry-ons barely roll through.</p>
<p>I don’t even have my ears pieced. Not a fan, but to each their own. I try not to judge a book by it’s cover.</p>
<p>We have many people at work with pierced eye brows, noses, etc. some with florescent hair. Lots of noticeable tattoos. This is a white collar office, not retail. all the hair is combed and people look presentable. No mohawks or anything.</p>
<p>I do have to wonder when people go on an interview though… Do they take them out and then wait to see what the dress code is, then decide if they’re putting then back in? I guess it’s different by person. </p>
<p>I know one girl at work with blonde hair and red highlights put her hair back to blonde for get interview, then she got hired and saw someone with blue hair and decided to go blue highlights on blonde hair. Last time I saw her she had red hair that was shaved underneath, and when she tied it up you could see she had the underneath dyed into a leopard pattern!</p>
<p>Sent from my DROID BIONIC using CC</p>
<p>I think it is up to the person, the decisions they make. I don’t particularly find the ear gauges attractive, but that is personal choice and my own reaction. Doesn’t make me ill, just makes me look at not feel much, to be honest. Piercings and such can be attractive, depending on how they are done, but for example, I find personally eyebrow piercings don’t do much for me, but a small nose stud on a girl can be attractive, it all depends on how it is done and such. Likewise, I have seen beautiful tattoos, including some arm sleeves that were gorgeous, others turned me off (I tend to like gentle tattoos, ones with naturistic stuff, rather then skulls and stuff…). </p>
<p>I would tell people that depending on where you hire, your appearance does matter, depends on the bosses, too. in some places, they could care less about tattoos and piercings, if the person is good, others might care. I wouldn’t go to work for IBM with Tattoos and piercings, even now years after the blue suit was retired. In banking and such, could be a problem, lot of those places still make tech employees wear suits and such.,…I once had an interview with a consulting firm where i had my earrings in (In my wild youth of my 30’s <em>lol</em>), forgot to take them out, and was hired on the spot (or offered a job, I didn’t take it), at one point I was a manger with very long hair, wore earrings, and no one cared because they knew what I could do, but I wouldn’t do that on an interview, either. </p>
<p>Yes, appearance does matter, but if someone wants to express themselves in a certain way, and risk being judged, that is their business. Me, I would try to judge someone on who they were, their skills and such, but it doesn’t mean that even I couldn’t be turned off by what someone was wearing or whatever , as much as I would try not to.</p>
<p>I think, though, it is quite judgmental when I hear people telling some kid who is different they will never amount to anything, or tell some young woman with a lot of tattoos and some piercings that, as I saw one guy do at a Mensa meeting, that she should be ashamed of herself, that his daughter had gone to grad school who was the same age, was going to work for a prestigious investment bank, was making something out of herself…meanwhile said young woman (with the Tattoos and such) was a complete sweetheart, she would give you the shirt off her back, was an accomplished musician and poet, and was a delight to be around, whereas the guys daughter, based on the type of people who go into investment banking, would probably steal grandmas wallet and if they saw someone needing help would probably think long and hard what was in it for them (btw, I am not shy, I told the guy exactly those words, including what people like myself who had been around bankers professionally thought about them; someone else afterwords told me he had met the daughter, and I made her out nicer then she really was)…</p>
<p>Okay, now I will go out on a tangent, these kids want to be different, express themselves differently, which is cool…the only thing I object to personally is so many of the kids like that also think smoking is a way to rebel, and that does bother me…especially as I told one young woman whom I know smoked who was like that, they were supporting the very repression they supposedly were fighting, that tobacco companies in general support the kind of socially conservative agenda that they in part are rebelling against, must as I told GLBT friends of mine the same thing…why rebel and support the morons who would put you down?</p>
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<p>Okay, that made me laugh. I haven’t heard that arguement since I was a kid, with grown-ups railing against the darn long-haired hippies “who think they’re expressing their individuality.” I thought then, and I do now, that this is totally putting words into people’s mouths. People aren’t a bunch of complete idiots, unable to see that they didn’t actually invent a look. Gosh, I’m betting that they know that others also adopt whatever that look is. They adopt said look because they like it. </p>
<p>As I said before, I think the thin, plucked eyebrow look is ugly. But I have to imagine that the women who adopt it feel differently. They do it because they like it… They’re not imagining they just invented it.</p>
<p>I think smug dismissal is an unfortunate response to people’s choices. But what do I know? I’ve got undyed gray hair and I don’t wear make-up–what the heck’s wrong with me???</p>
<p>^^the difference is that not dying your hair, or wearing high heels, or not wearing makeup etc. etc. are all things that can be easily changed should something in your life require a change. Someone can take out a small nose ring, or an eyebrow piercing or tongue piercing can removed should the job require. A tat can be in a place that can be covered if in a people facing job. Large holes in the ears and tats that creep up the neck or down onto the hands cannot be removed (easily) nor covered. If a person chooses to do these types of things than it is foolish to expect that it might not impact the impression they put forth…at least in this decade. Granted a particular office or even perhaps some industries might tolerate and embrace that individualism, but there are businesses and industries that don’t. No one would like to come out of a surgery and find out the back or front of someone’s earring ended up in their belly. I’m not sure many seniors would be comfortable being tended to by someone with a large hole in their ear. I’m not convinced that young people really understand that these days.</p>
<p>Yes. i’m not addressing that. I was replying to the dated canard about people thinking they’re being individual when they’re not. The point about permanence and job finding has been made and remade extensively. It’s definitely valid, as I have agreed to above. several times.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure I’ve been hearing my whole life that cosmetic surgery to remove tattoos and such was going to be big business “one day”. Has there been any increase that anyone knows of? I wonder when “one day” will come.</p>
<p>Study: Tattoo Removal Climbs 32% in Competitive Job Market
May 23, 2012 - Posted to Data/Research Studies by The Patient’s Guide
I can’t link the above, but you’ll find it if you google it.</p>
<p>It’s probably not really either/or, Romani.</p>
<p>Probably there will be some reconstructive cosmetic surgery and some assimilation of the counterculture, as always.</p>
<p>I mean, in your generation, who even cares about a tattoo? Nobody. So, do you think you guys will even “see” them when you are hiring? I doubt it. In our generation, men’s earrings have become deriguer, but when we first got out of college, guys did NOT were those to work.</p>
<p>The river carries us all to the same place. I just hope you guys don’t have kids who want face tattoos to be standard. But, we shall see.</p>
<p>Just a wild guess here, but I’m betting that those who think they are very open minded about extreme body art and admire people who have the guts to express themselves so openly might have a different opinion when it comes to their own families. It’s fine when we’re talking about co-workers, distant relatives and kids friends, but maybe not so much if your med school daughter or future CEO son comes home with full body tattoos and ear gauges. Or if your husband/boyfriend wants to get his tongue split so he can look like a serpent. I can’t imagine any decade where that would be considered sexy, instead of repellant.</p>