Additional Research

I realised that despite my conversations with people about the subject and the documentaries viewed, there was still not enough discussion on the subject for me to feel properly informed and comfortable with the topic I would be interviewing others about. I decided to expand my research to listen to podcasts, where the speakers voiced their own opinions as well as the opinions of their listeners. I found this to be really helpful as it made me consider extra points in my subject I hadn't thought about before, expanded my views as well as provided me with more thought provoking questions to ask in my own interview.

A lot of the podcasts involved race as an issue within society and how it affected their pretty privilege. Although this was a really interesting and important issue, I realised that with the limited time I had to create an engaging short there would not be sufficient time to include every issue and be able to represent every group affected and would have to narrow it down so that I could focus on one area within the large scope of hospitality. As the 2010 Equality Act on racial discrimination in employment covers this issue in relation to hospitality, I believed that it would not be the strongest issue to focus on when linking pretty privilege and hospitality together. 

Podcast Research Notes

PODCAST DISCUSSION FINDINGS 

‘Is Being Pretty the Ultimate Privilege’

• Pretty privilege comes from social conditioning and is contextual 
• Racial context involved- black women see their beauty in a different way, not the universal definition
• On a day to day basis they feel as if they aren’t measured as closely but admitted that if it was a hired job position competing in a room full of people, their looks do matter initially 
• Argue that people do think lesser of people who are less attractive- hierarchy of looks, common phrases heard in society include “they’re not even that pretty anyways”
• Class privilege is accepted, but PP is harder for people to stomach as it feels like class privilege is earned, which is why it is easier to condone. You can’t do the same on attractivity
• They believe pretty privilege generally comes before white privilege but they still go hand in hand 
• Podcasters defined the term as “the idea that being perceived as conventionally attractive affords you opportunities in society, and give you a social advantage over your less pretty counterparts. Pretty is obviously subjective and can be different based on geographic locations, culture and gender.”
• Socially, PP does help you with human interactions for example university, jobs, friends, you benefit from it
• The idea of having PP and benefiting from it is seen as a positive thing (you wouldn't brag about privilege based on race, but you would about looks)
• Often, people immediately like you before knowing you
• A lot of benefits found from bar/club scenario or getting employment in a customer service position without experience 
• People are more willing to listen and help
• “Suddenly life is cheaper”
• Pulchronomics: beauty affects your quality of life 
• Why some might not benefit from it: race, plus size, short, non binary, personality, masculine, acne, disability and mood (answers from podcast listeners)
• Podcast speaker (a black woman) admits that she does groom herself a lot more -without the way she speaks and dresses, there is not much she can do in the beauty space. “I don’t think my body or my face provides me permission or even gives me a leg up to compete. We will be silly to think so” 
• To her, the face is not alone enough, she does not think without having hair done, makeup, etc she cannot even compete.
• “When you’re a black woman, you need to be extra pretty for survival”
• “Are you pretty because you’re benefitting or are you pretty because you need to survive in society” (continuation on racial struggles)

Points I picked up from this podcast:

• Society condones judgement off the level of class you are in, it is appropriated and condoned to treat people differently based on their social/wealth status but it is seen as a negative thing to do  the same based on just looks.
• You would admit that you might not treat a homeless person vs a high class socialite the same way but you could not admit that you’d treat someone less attractive vs someone conventionally attractive.
• Race has a huge impact on how you are perceived, interesting point on how much more effort a person of colour may have to put in to fit into conventional society standards. It suggests that a lot still needs to be developed and changed in society.

Potential questions to ask interviewees:

• Do you treat people differently based off how they look? Is it subconscious or not? If so, do you not think it's fair they do it to you?
• Do you believe people do the same to you (for example when you’re having a rough day vs when you take time to groom yourself)
• As a white person, do you believe pretty privilege and white privilege go together most of the time? Have you experienced both elements?
• Do you sometimes groom yourself more, get more dressed up since you know it may help benefit you? (like for example, on the first day of school you dress up nice and put more effort in, why is that?)
• When you are being served in a bar for example, has that been affected based on what you look like?
• Do you sometimes feel, especially as a woman, you are under more pressure to look a certain way?
• Do you think pp is more of a positive thing or a negative thing?