Look Lessons

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:

Is a person's success influenced by physical appearance?
Are some groups more impacted by lookism than others?
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.

1. Perceptions

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.

2. Bias & Shame

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.

3. Ugliness

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.

4. Beauty?

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.

5. Hair.

6. Sirens

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.

7. Research

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

Lookism Lessons