Size and beauty standards

Size and beauty standards are used to value people. They are often not seen as legitimate in all purposes, but they typically affect decision-making sub rosa even when not recognized or acknowledged. They are highly gendered and racialized.

For instance, the preference for tall men as shown in US elections; women in make-up (a preference which varies widely; for instance, being seen as immodest in some cultures; necessary to be ladylike in US Southern culture; etc.); sizeism, most Western cultures valuing thinness in 20th century (but implicates class, because fatness is now equated with working class in US and thinness with professionalism or upper class); European-descent skin color (tans or pallor, a class and gender distinction in part); hair styles (straightening for African-American women particularly; afros popular during Black Power movement; straightening for Jewish women ("Jewfros"); etc.); foot-binding; cosmetic surgeries of various sorts; other mutilations. Dress requirements & standards; religious enforcement; women's beauty as men's property throughout different cultures. Surgery, diets, tattoos, etc. Recent anti-tattoo screed by -- was it Rowbotham? or Jeffreys?

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