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Noah Horn

UWRT 1102

February 27, 2017

How does Lookism play a role in the Modern Church and American society as a whole?

While many of the issues behind many kinds of prejudice are deeply socially, politically

and emotionally complex, the core cause of the discrepancy is easy to determine. Non-white

people have to deal with racism, The root of Sexism is the idea that men are superior to women

and Homophobia, is caused by disdain towards homosexuality. Because of this we can rather

clearly see if certain kinds of discrimination are taking place in an organization (If a

McDonalds in a black community has only white people working in it, there is clearly a

problem). The issue of Lookism, Prejudice or Discrimination based upon an individual's

physical appearance or level of attractiveness, is a lot harder to determine. Defining someones

level of physical attractiveness impossible to do objectively and because of this it often goes

unnoticed. Despite this, it is clear that Lookism exists at least in some pockets of American

society and I plan to explore what plays into lookism and attempt to inquire about how prevalent

it is in American Society.

I want to spend my life inspiring children. I want to be able to tell them that we live in a

world where if they work hard and focus on their strengths they can achieve amazing things. I

also grew up in a Church in which I fully believed I was able to do that. Mecklenburg

Community church has been my second home for longer than I can remember. My friends, sense

of self and my entire belief system was based around the people I grew up with and the lessons I

have learned at my church. This church taught me to love All people regardless of if they

looked like me, believed what I believe or if they treated me well and as I grew into adulthood, I
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found my passion for teaching through teaching these same values to kids for the past few years

and I truly felt like what Mecklenburg Community Church was doing was truly relevant and

life changing. Over the last year or two, however, I have had a bit of a Harsh reality check.

Through a series of events I realized that Everyone who was displayed on stage or in any

public limelight was Young and attractive. All the staff members in the childrens ministry were

either married to the Senior Pastor, or Under 40 years old and they all fit rather well into society's

standard for physical beauty. My friend who has an unbelievable ability to sing was not

accepted onto the Worship Team because of the way she looked. I started to see over and over

again how unnaturally attractive every important person in the church was. My church preached

a message of equality and using ones spiritual gifts, yet in many ways it seems like they may not

be practicing what they preach.

My Inquiry will center around the Lookism in Modern contemporary churches; however,

I want it to be used as a sample for American society as a whole. Lookism has been studied in

depth in both the business and educational realms and I want to be able to apply these concepts

and explore their implications in a faith based environment. Much of my preliminary Research

has simply explored the existence of a rather new concept as the term lookism has only been

around since 1978 (Merriam Webster). An article from 2011 in a Journal on Multicultural

education showed that Teachers often based their expectations for a students success and actions

based upon their physical appearance. In the business world, An Industrial Relations Journal

Showed that up to 90% of employers in the retail hospitality market admit that Personal

appearance is of critical importance when it comes to recruitment and a similar percent talked

about how the the look of their employees was a part of their branding.
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As I continue to explore this topic, I plan to use a lot of primary sources through

speaking with people within my church as well as individuals who have decided to leave the

church.I will continue to look for secondary sources that deal with issues facing modern

contemporary churches and continue to investigate books and article written by the senior pastor

of my church. I truly hope to bring an awareness to an obscure form of discrimination. I want to

explore what kind of challenges those who do not fit society's definition of beauty. Finally, I

want to continue a conversation about the morality of a churchs decision to brand themselves as

young and attractive, even if it means that they could hurt some people very deeply.