Examples in Society
Throughout society there are thousands of examples of prejudice based off appearance that can be found all over the media. Television shows like "Ugly Betty", and the movie "Mean Girls" are all about appearance and how it effects your life and the people around them. Prejudice can also be found in childrens movies. If you haven't noticed, there are rarely any "ugly" celebrities, all of them are generally good looking. Which brings up the question .... Mary lous coffee discrimnation...hooters...
Mean Girls:
The movie Mean Girls is filled with ways that people, specifically teenaged girls, are quick to judge a person based off their appearence. One scene from to movie takes place while Regina is describing another girl Janis. Regina says, "Janis, I can't invite you, because I think you're lesbian." I mean I couldn't have a lesbian at my party. There were gonna be girls there in their *bathing suits*. I mean, right? She was a LESBIAN. So then her mom called my mom and started yelling at her, it was so retarded. And then she dropped out of school because no one would talk to her, and she came back in the fall for high school, all of her hair was cut off and she was totally weird, and now I guess she's on crack." Regina would not invite her to the party because of her appearance and what it would do to her reputation when in reality Janis is the nicest girl when Regina is the jerk. Another part of Meangirls being quick to judge is when Cady says, "Ms. Norbury had us write out apologies to people we'd hurt in our lifes." and a random girl replys, "Alyssa, I'm sorry I called you a gap-toothed bitch. It's not your fault you're so gap-toothed." The mean thing that the random girl said was based off of appearance in which she judged her by. Just because her teeth were gapped, she recognizes the fact that she can't help it but doesn't feel bad and will continue to judge the girl based off of her looks. Possibly the best representation of judgement based off appearance occurs when Janis and Damien are showing Cady the different cliques at the high school. Janis says, "You got your freshmen, ROTC guys, preps, J.V. jocks, Asian nerds, Cool Asians, Varsity jocks, Unfriendly black hotties, Girls who eat their feelings, Girls who don't eat anything, Desperate wannabes, Burnouts, Sexually active band geeks, the greatest people you will ever meet, and the worst. Beware of plastics." This describes how quick a person can simply look around a lunch room and point out where they belong just based off of the way they are dressed or the way they act. Cady is now forced to chose which clique she feels she belongs with or which clique feels the need to accept her in. Since Cady is a pretty girl, she had no trouble fitting in with the plastics, the group warned about. The extent that the girls in the group go to in order to be accepted is extreme and highlight how we prefer to only associate with people of the similar appearances and make it our mission to go after the ones that we believe are below ourselves.
Quotes
Girl: I saw Cady Heron wearing army pants and flip flops, so I bought army pants and flip flops.
Kevin Gnapoor: Look, I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but I only date women of color.
Karen: If you're from Africa, why are you white?
Gretchen: Oh my God, Karen, you can't just ask people why they're white.
Cady: [describing Regina] She's not even that good looking if you really look at her.
Janis: I don't know, now that she's getting fatter she's got pretty big jugs.
Gretchen: Regina, you're wearing sweatpants. It's Monday.
Regina: So...?
Karen: So that's against the rules, and you can't sit with us.
Regina: Whatever. Those rules aren't real.
Karen: They were real that day I wore a vest!
Regina: Because that vest was disgusting!
Gretchen: You can't sit with us!
Jessica Lopez: I don't hate you cuz yo' fat... yo' fat cuz I hate you!
Cady: [narrating] Calling somebody else fat won't make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid doesn't make you any smarter. And ruining Regina George's life definitely didn't make me any happier. All you can do in life is try to solve the problem in front of you.