a world without roads

ROUND 2 — Match 64 of 138

Grace Chasity (Nerdy Prudes Must Die)

Problematic because: "Grace is someone who has a very high moral standard that she applies mostly to others, but is very good at justifying her own actions. She reports her classmates for cheating, but is also the first to suggest getting revenge on the school bully, and the first to suggest burying his body when the plan goes awry. Her extreme views eventually culminate in using the power of this universe’s evil gods to kill people for perceived slights against herself and/or God (as in, the Christian God, not the evil ones she actually made a deal with.) This is only one of three timelines in which she eventually becomes a serial killer." Propaganda: 1. "That kind of hypocrisy is interesting to me, and Angela Giarratana gives such a wonderfully unhinged performance that it loops back around to being charismatic." 2. "whenever a guy doesn't take no for an answer I think 'I wish I could Grace Chasity you'. idk man I think she's got the right idea. sometimes you need a spooky magic book to stop guys from making unwanted advances at you"

vs. Macavity (Cats)

Problematic because: "Domestic abuse, elder abuse, coercion, gambling, cheating at gambling, strangling at least one lapdog, and generally violating the laws of man and nature ("He's broken every human law/He breaks the law of gravity")." Propaganda: "He's pretty much the embodiment of what you would get if you actually gave a cat magical powers - violence and barely-restrained chaos. Stan."

Fire Skink (Mochlus fernandi), family Scincidae, Equatorial Guinea

“Madison, who works a customer service job at an airport spa, has an employee handbook that says “makeup should be well maintained” and “hands and nails must be well manicured.” She says the few men she works with just ignore these guidelines “because they’re meant for women but [it] doesn’t explicitly say that.” Her wages ($13.25 per hour + 15% retail commission) do not include additional pay to purchase manicures or makeup. During her interview, her now-boss commented on how nice her makeup looked and how well her shoes matched her purse—comments that make her feel like she needs to keep up that kind of appearance even though she already has the job. 

It’s well known that a persistent wage gap exists for women workers in the United States, a gap that becomes even wider when race, industry, age and geography are taken into account. But less frequently discussed is the often silent expectation around appearance imposed on women workers, which has its own financial costs—known as the “grooming gap.” The grooming gap refers to the set of social norms regarding grooming and appearance for women, including the time women workers must spend to conform to these norms and the material consequences it has on their lives. 

We’ve all heard the common advice to “look the part” at work. For men, that can often just mean business casual clothing and a short haircut. For women, it can mean hours spent each week on makeup, hair styling and curating an outfit that’s both attractive and professional. 

The rules are usually unspoken; even when employers do not explicitly require workers to wear makeup, for example, women workers often feel required to wear it anyway. 

They’re not wrong: Sociologists Jaclyn Wong and Andrew Penner found that physically attractive workers have higher incomes than average-looking workers, but that this relationship is eliminated when controlling for grooming in women. In other words, if you purchase the right clothes, makeup and haircut, higher wages are more within reach. It’s true that men need to abide by certain grooming rules, too, but they are less complex, less expensive and less time consuming. Men’s haircuts, for example, often cost much less than women’s haircuts—regardless of hair length. The grooming gap essentially constitutes a pay cut catch-22: If women don’t conform, they are paid less; if they do conform, they’re expected to use those higher wages on beauty products and grooming regimens. 

Grooming costs for women can be extremely expensive; the global beauty industry, valued at $532 billion worldwide, directs aggressive advertising toward women to convince them they need to purchase a whole host of products to have a chance at being beautiful, well-liked or successful. The industry relies on maintaining impossible expectations around women’s looks so it can continue to rake in enormous profits. One 2017 study found the average woman puts $8 worth of product on her face each day; another found the average woman spends up to $225,000 on skincare and makeup during her lifetime. And then there’s the “pink tax”: Studies confirm that, 42% of the time, products marketed to women are more expensive than comparable products targeted to men. 

The grooming gap also results in a loss of free time: 55 minutes each day for the average woman, the equivalent of two full weeks each year. Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFACWA), says that, in her industry—a workforce that is 79.3% women—the expectation around appearance literally “interrupts your sleep”: Flight attendants get minimal rest between flights, and that rest time is further shrunk because they are expected to appear “perfectly coifed” before their next flight. Nelson says that all of her grooming tasks took 30–40 minutes each day (more than two hours in a five-day work week). Madison agrees: it takes her 45 minutes to do her makeup and style her hair before her 7 a.m. shift—and she wakes up at 5 a.m. to get it all done. Prior to this job, Madison says she worked at the beauty department at Target, where she spent $200 on products every other week. 

Restaurant and hospitality workers are perhaps hardest hit by the grooming gap, as they rely on tips to survive. When I was a barista in 2010–2011, the only official dress code rule was to wear closed-toed shoes, for safety. Still, I knew I had to show up looking pretty to pay the rent; I made less than $10 an hour and I needed the tips.

Katie, 36, a veteran bartender and server in Fort Smith, Ark., says at her current job, it’s “understood” she should wear makeup. At a previous restaurant, a manager even told her and her coworkers they would “make better tips if [they] wore makeup.”

“Based on my own appearance—weight fluctuations, makeup versus no makeup, jewelry versus no jewelry—there’s a definite difference,” Katie says. She adds that she was passed over for the most lucrative bartending shifts at her previous job after overhearing her managers say they wanted “cuter girls” to bartend instead.

Multi-billion dollar industries also market fad diets and anti-aging products to women. Both Katie and Jeeva, 24, a bartender and member of UNITE HERE, the union representing hospitality, hotel and airport workers, worry about aging. “As you get older, as a female bartender, your tips can go down,” Jeeva says. Katie says she “hope[s] to leave [the service industry] in the next 10 years, before I get too ugly.”

The grooming gap’s effects are compounded for women of color. According to Restaurant Opportunity Center, restaurant owners look for workers who are “clean-cut, [have] good hygiene or a professional appearance, all potential code words for race.” For instance, Black women spent $473 million on relaxers, weaves and other hair care in 2017, in part because of racist ideas that natural Black hair is not professional or attractive. Black workers annually spend nine times more on hair and beauty products than other workers. 

For transgender women, too, there can be an added layer of work, stress and self-consciousness. Autumn, who transitioned while at her current publishing job in Washington, D.C., says she quickly realized how much time and energy it takes to perform femininity for work. She used to spend 20 minutes to get ready in the morning, but now takes at least 45 minutes. Autumn adds, “I have to do things that cis women don’t have to… [but] it’s gotten easier with time and practice,” like tucking and dealing with facial hair. Because she presents extremely femme, Autumn says she hasn’t dealt with enforcement around her appearance, but other women workers around the country have been disciplined and even fired for appearing insufficiently feminine. Women workers have sued—and won—over gender discrimination that manifests as attractiveness discrimination.

Nat, a trans woman who works at a union in the Washington, D.C., area, says, “I didn’t feel like I was allowed to be a woman if I liked masculine things. It delayed any kind of self-reflection” about gender and identity “for such a long time.”

I remember in secondary school a friend telling me how differently she was treated when she showed up to school with glasses, no makeup, and a sweatshirt vs contacts, makeup, and a more "feminine" outfit. She said it was like night and day.

On the days she showed up to school in glasses, no makeup, and a comfortable (but androgynous/unisex) outfit, she said she was ignored and dismissed so much more. People were more likely to treat her like she was boring, annoying, unintelligent, and like she had nothing worthwhile to contribute.

However, when she came to school with contacts, makeup, and a more "feminine" outfit, suddenly everyone was so much nicer to her. People wanted to talk to her, people treated her like she was funny and intelligent, people asked her what her opinions were and valued her contributions to the conversation.

Of course, in both scenarios she was still the same person, with the same intelligence, the same humor, the same mind. People just valued her differently based on how well she adhered to beauty standards. I don't think anyone was doing this consciously, which is why it's so important to talk about this and be more aware of this. Check our unconscious biases.

Or, recently another friend of mine shaved her head. Her hair wasn't super long before, but it was long enough to fall into a range considered "feminine".

In her words, after she shaved her head, she said "it's like the whole world has gotten a little colder, like someone turned down the temperature a few degrees." And she didn't mean that literally.

She talked about how after shaving her head, there was a total 180 in how customer service workers treated her. Before when she had hair, cashiers and servers would smile at her and make a little chit chat, but after shaving her head all she gets from customer service workers (including from the very same ones who would smile and be kind to her when she had hair) is a cold and dismissive attitude.

She said she also doesn't receive the small acts of kindness and general politeness she received from strangers before. When she had hair, strangers might have held a door for her, or picked up things for her she dropped, those sorts of things. But after shaving her head she no longer receives any of these small pleasantries, just an air of cold contempt and dismissal from most people around her.