Your words have so much power.
Every day, if you tell yourself
'I love you,'
if you give yourself
one word of validation,
​it will change your mind.

— Ashley Graham
Big Questions:  
​
  1. Is a person's success influenced by physical appearance?
  2. Are some groups more impacted by lookism than others?
  3. Based on looks - how do words and actions affect us?
What is Lookism?​​
Displaying prejudice or discrimination
​against individuals or groups,
based on their appearance.
Favoring those whose body types and ethnicities 
match one’s cultural expectations.
Forms of Lookism might include
​weightism, ageism, ableism, racism, hair-ism...
The assignments that have activities are in red.
  • Explore ideas of self-perceptions
  • Reflect on common threads of self-perceptions that many people have.
  • Brainstorm on ways to move towards the idea of body positivity. ​
  • Explore attitudes and biases regarding weight, age and skin-tone.  
  • Relate viewpoints to current events and experiences.
  • Discuss ways to create more acceptance and support.
  •  Explore the concept of how we define ugliness. 
  • Acknowledge the bias against what people might term "unattractiveness". 
  • Brainstorm ways to honestly combat perceptions of ugliness and establish a balance.
  • Introduce the idea of Eurocentric beauty standards.
  • Discuss different ways of looking at  beauty and inclusion.
  • Brainstorm on ways to move towards honestly creating an inclusive beauty standard.
Analysis and discussion of two poems related to black hair/lookism.
It's a Head Thang (19)
Myth and Mask (20)
Students will also have creative assignments.

​Students will formulate a hypothesis regarding lookism, create a survey, administer the survey, and present the results to the class.
Photo credit:
Free the fro Evan Welch
Mask Joanna Atkinson
Photo Credit: Gambian Girl, Joe Rodd
On the beach by Ned Benjamin
​Girl with braids by David Nels