<p>[Chronicle</a> Careers: 4/14/2008: Putting My Best Face Forward](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2008/04/2008041401c/careers.html]Chronicle”>http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2008/04/2008041401c/careers.html)</p>
<p>Not to be blunt, but for an English professor the thesis of her story is pretty weak. Half the article talks about getting Botox injections and the other half talks about how she’s been in temporary positions for a while… very little evidence was presented to really show that these stories were linked. </p>
<p>I somehow doubt she got the job because she got some Botox. Nevertheless, I’m glad it all worked out for her.</p>
<p>At least she got the job. And, she seems to like what she does. Those are two pretty huge positives. </p>
<p>I was very afraid that the punchline was going to be different. It is awfully tough to get a job when you’re on the other side of 50, particularly if you want to change careers.</p>
<p>Maybe her newfound confidence, not her lack of wrinkles, gave her the edge. </p>
<p>…just a thought.</p>
<p>^^I wish I could say that I believe that is the case.</p>
<p>I know I would not be dying my hair if it were not for the job I have and the office in which I work.</p>
<p>Thank goodness I already have tenure. The article doesn’t seem untrue to me.</p>
<p>This just occurred to me:
As it happens, the only professional women of my age (ahem) whom I know and who do not color their hair actually do have tenured positions. And I have no idea if any of my acquaintances partake of botox, though I know that several undergo laser and chemical treatments for their facial skin.</p>
<p>My daughter recently commented that in Ghana everyone she met was attractive. She also noticed that everyone she had the good fortune of meeting, was positive, warm & generous.</p>
<p>I find it hard to believe that Ghanaians have some sort of genetic superiority that gave them great skin and bone structure- I think it is their attitude which makes them good looking.
Superficial appearance is * superficial*. But confidence, attitude and personality have a bigger role to play in how people perceive you.</p>
<p>Some people need the confidence that plastic surgery or expensive clothes might give them. But I haven’t seen plastic surgery make anyone more intelligent or more kind.</p>
<p>People treat you better when you look better, this should be no surprise to anyone. I’ve experienced it firsthand in the way ive been perceived before and after having cystic acne.</p>
<p>Well, mafool, I don’t have tenure (adjunct and mid-level college administrator) and I don’t color my hair or use Botox. Or makeup, for that matter. They can take me as I am, or not. Hasn’t seemed to be a problem.</p>
<p>It seems realistic – not just for academia, but for the workforce in general. People who are young have a big advantage. Consequently, and sadly, for the overwhelming majority of us middle aged parents, if we have to look for a job, it helps to look younger than our age.</p>
<p>You can Google and find articles that indicate that women with grey hair are less likely to be hired for jobs than are women who dye their hair. Sad statement about how age is regarded by our society.</p>
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<p>Could it be because the median age in Ghana is 20.4 years – just about half the median age in the USA? Youth is attractive.</p>
<p>life expectancy in ghana is 55-57 years old</p>
<p>Much has been made of whether John Kerry had botox treatments or whether Hillary Clinton did. They’ll never tell. Personally I think they look like people who had them. People still say that Kennedy beat Nixon on TV because he was better looking. It is not just women who try to look better for important jobs. Men dye their hair too. Not just to single out democrats, lots of people could not believe that Reagan’s hair was natural. I think a lot of people get a boost from “beauty” treatments. The problem is those who get addicted to cosmetic surgery etc., never looking good enough.</p>
<p>Being older was an advantage to me as a psychologist. Lots of people doubt that a person younger than themselves has the wisdom or experience to help them with their problems. I expect the same is true for MD’s.</p>
<p>“People treat you better when you look better, this should be no surprise to anyone. I’ve experienced it firsthand in the way ive been perceived before and after having cystic acne.”</p>
<p>Perhaps you projected yourself differently when you had cystic acne.</p>
<p>Perhaps that was part of it, but do you really think the main reason for prejudice against say, morbidly obese people, is because of their lack of confidence? Confidence is part of it, but the bigger part is how others perceive their physical appearance. Both acne and obesity scream ‘illness’ to us biologically and so we avoid it… a lot of this is instinctual.</p>
<p>There are cultures that find obese people extremely attractive.
"NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania - Mey Mint struggles to carry her weight up the flight of stairs, her thighs shaking with each step. It will take several minutes for the 50-year-old to catch her breath, air hissing painfully in and out of her chest.</p>
<p>Her rippling flesh is not the result of careless overeating, though, but rather of a tradition.</p>
<p>In Mauritania, to make a girl big and plump, ‘gavage’ — a borrowed French word from the practice of fattening of geese for foie gras — starts early. Obesity has long been the ideal of beauty, signaling a family’s wealth in a land repeatedly wracked by drought.</p>
<p>Mint was 4 when her family began to force her to drink 14 gallons of camel’s milk a day. When she vomited, she was beaten. If she refused to drink, her fingers were bent back until they touched her hand. Her stomach hurt so much she prayed all the animals in the world would die so that there would be no more milk.</p>
<p>By the time Mint was 10, she could no longer run. Unconcerned, her proud mother delighted in measuring the loops of fat hanging under her daughter’s arms."
[Mauritania</a> struggles with love of fat women - More health news - MSNBC.com](<a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18141550/]Mauritania”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18141550/)</p>
<p>"In Niger, as in many other places in Africa, fat is the beauty ideal for women. At one festival, called Hangandi, women of the Djerma ethnic group compete to become the heaviest. They train for the beauty contest by gorging on food, especially millet, and drinking lots of water on the morning before the contest. The heaviest woman is declared the winner and given a prize – and more food.</p>
<p>Among the Calabari people in southeastern Nigeria, brides are sent to so-called fattening rooms or fattening farms before their weddings. They are not permitted to leave the farms for a few weeks, during which their caretakers prepare copious helpings of food and massage them into a rounder shape. At the end of their stay, before the wedding, the brides are paraded in the village square so everyone can admire their fullness."
[Maradi</a> Journal; On the Scale of Beauty, Weight Weighs Heavily - New York Times](<a href=“http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E00E2DF1131F931A25751C0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all]Maradi”>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E00E2DF1131F931A25751C0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all)</p>