AEE: What is Lookism and What Can We Do About It?

This is an All Ears English podcast. What is lookism and what can we do about it? Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English?

We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection, with your American hosts, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer. coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA. And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allearsenglish.com forward slash subscribe.

Do you ever judge people by how good looking they are? Do you feel like others judge you? Today, find out about the term lookism and how to strike up a conversation about it in English.

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Go to allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. That's allearsenglish.com slash f-l-u-e-n-c-y-s-c-o-r-e. Hello, Lindsay. How are you? Hey, Aubrey. I'm doing great.

Great to be back on the mic. We took a little break, although episodes still came out, but you and I haven't recorded in a few weeks here. So it's nice to be back on the microphone together. It is nice to be back.

And I have a question for you. This is going to be a really interesting topic today. And I'm wondering, do you ever judge someone based on their appearance?

I mean, I think if you said no, it would be a lie, right? The human mind is designed to draw conclusions as quickly as possible because that's evolutionarily how we survived as a species, unfortunately. But I will say that what I try to do is when I make a judgment, I think about the fact that I just made a judgment. It's like an awareness, right?

And I think, oh, could that be... untrue. At least you're questioning the prejudices, you might have the assumptions. And it might not necessarily be about someone's beauty or something physical, but maybe if they're slovenly dressed or seem like they have poor hygiene, things like that, it's hard to not draw conclusions about a person.

Oh, for sure. I mean, and I know it happens on the other side. Like I know that when I bring my son into daycare now, I basically roll out of bed, feed him and then go in kind of like just in cut off jeans. My hair is all over the place.

And most parents drop off their kids when they are... polished, ready for work in their high heels. And I know I've been looked up and down and I know what they're thinking. I've had that same experience.

If I have to drop something off to kids at school, I'm like, I wonder what the other moms look like coming in. I'm like, barely dressed. I work from home, okay? So it happens on both sides.

And so we're going to talk about this today. This is fascinating as a topic. This was inspired by an article that I saw in the New Yorker that was called, Should We Do More to Fight Lookism? And I immediately was like, what is lookism?

I had never heard this word. And Lindsay and I chatted briefly. You hadn't as well, right? So it's sort of a new term, I think. But it makes sense. This is the unfair treatment or discrimination of people based on their physical appearance.

So judging someone's character, intelligence or value because of how they look. And that can be anything about their appearance, something that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with their character, but it's a judgment solely based on how they look. Completely. Guys, we love to get into topics like this, thought-provoking, new cultural topics.

And we're going to show you later in the episode how you can talk with another English speaker about this too. So hit follow if you love our style. We'll show you how, most importantly, to connect around good conversation. Yes, exactly.

Because this is such an interesting topic. It's very cultural. I'm sure it's different around the world. But all of us have observed it or noticed it or found ourselves doing it.

So definitely something that's interesting to talk about. 100%. So where should we start today, Aubrey? What do we need to know? So I'll first share some details about this article if you want to go check it out.

It was in The New Yorker. And sort of the subheading was discrimination against the unattractive is widespread and widely tolerated. So this was by Joshua Rothman, July 24th of this year, 2026. And this is interesting how it's not just about the fact that lookism exists.

It's more about why isn't anyone doing anything about it? Like, why are there no repercussions? Why are there no consequences if someone is getting a promotion or getting a job? And there's a chance that that was affected by something about their appearance.

Very interesting, right? Because if you look at the C-suite of many companies, it's often the good-looking – well, it's often men. Yes, that too. Good-looking men and older men, right?

And so there's a lot there. But this is fascinating. This is interesting. So when we talk about lookism, let's make sure we have the definition. Are we looking just at attractiveness?

Are we also looking at looking like, let's say, unkempt or like – Both. Yeah. Like I said before, kind of showing up at daycare, sort of hair all over the place.

All of that, right? There's a reason that when you go to a job interview, you are dressing in your nicest clothing and trying to do your hair and look well. Most of us don't go to an interview looking unkempt. And there's a reason for that.

Lookism, right? We know that we are being judged based on the appearance that we put forth. Yeah. And you can't prove it. You can't prove you didn't get a job because you went in sweats to an interview.

But you can assume that, right? Because that's just part of our culture. It's part of what our society values. Right. So we put on makeup, right, to prepare for a job interview.

We put on our best clothes. And yeah, I mean, that's just I guess I've never thought of it this way. I haven't really either. And I hadn't thought of it as an ism, right?

Something that we're being judged on and maybe unfairly. I had never thought of it like this exists in our society, but is it not okay? Is it something we should be fighting? It was just always sort of a given and that I'm sort of fascinated by my own assumptions there.

That is really fascinating. So what are kind of the key aspects here of Lookism, Aubrey? Yeah. So of course, the workplace, right? Employers often will favor attractive job candidates for hiring and promotions.

There is this sort of beauty premium where better looking workers often earn more money. And we know that there have been studies about this, there are statistics, but it's tricky because it's really hard to prove. Like you said, often leadership in a company are... good looking people, how can you prove that that helps them get the job?

Right. And also it would be hard to prove because those people that have made it to the leadership, the C-suite have the skills because they've been good looking, not just because of it, let's just say it's all the reason, but partially because of this throughout their entire careers, right? Something that compounds, it's something that would compound. There's a

When their whole life they have known that they have this attractiveness going for them. So there's a lot more to it than just attractiveness. If that person were a poor leader and had a lack of confidence, then they probably wouldn't be getting that job. It's kind of all related.

Exactly. Right. digital culture, right? Selfie sharing apps that increase appearance pressure. People have to think more. I was talking to my teenagers about this.

They never know when someone's going to take a picture of them and post it immediately. We didn't have that pressure as kids where it was just film cameras. There were like two pictures have taken of me a year. So I didn't have to worry about it so much.

The focus wasn't so much on appearance. That's a lot of pressure. Gosh, that is a lot of pressure for teenagers to have when they're already struggling with their appearance maybe or trying to figure out who they are or changes. This really reinforces those narrow beauty standards that you have to always be put together and photo ready.

And so it's interesting how that really has compounded this lookism and made it a bigger part of our culture, unfortunately. Yeah. Yeah. And there really aren't any laws that ban this because as we said, it's really hard.

It would be really hard to prove this. We have more laws about things like ageism, racism, sexism. What's another one? I don't know if we have any laws for fatism, but it is a term too that I've heard lately.

Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. So yeah, it's true. There aren't really any laws on the books. So targets of this don't really have legal protection. And you couldn't really prove it.

If you are maybe, by society standards, an unattractive person, and you feel like you're not getting jobs and you're not getting promotions, how could you possibly prove that?

it would be really hard to do for sure. So what is this halo effect concept? This is interesting. So this was kind of in the research about why this persists.

And this something called the halo effect is that people tend to automatically assume that attractive individuals are smarter, kinder, healthier, more confident. And often maybe they are because like we were saying, this compounds, this sort of reinforces the And so they might all be related often. And so we do, a lot of individuals have this tendency to assume attractiveness equals all these other positive characteristics.

Interesting. Right. But it's interesting why it could be true, right? It's because of lookism, because they've been given those opportunities, those advantages throughout their lives.

It's not because they're good looking, right? So interesting. Interesting. And I researched this a little further, because this was the first I had heard this term, but there was.

Yeah. An academic paper by the Cambridge University Press in April of 2026 called Lookism and Acceptable Discrimination. And this was a really fascinating paper that studied why lookism isn't taken as seriously in policy and practice as other forms of discrimination, such as sexism and racism. So you can just search and read that entire academic paper if you really want to dive in for details about this, because it is fascinating.

And it's also interesting to think about the cultural piece. This is possibly prevalent in many countries across many cultures, but is likely different depending on where you live. And that's really interesting as well. Of course.

Standards of beauty are different, of course. But it seems like because there have been two articles written in the last three or four months, it seems like it could be a hot new term kind of emerging that we're going to start talking about on a societal level. So this is really tuning our listeners in to a current topic that matters. Exactly.

Really interesting. So definitely it might come up in conversations and you want to be ready. Yes. Have you ever listened to native speakers and thought, I understand the words, but I still feel slightly lost.

That's because real English conversations include more than vocabulary. There's speed. There's connected speech. There are cultural references and casual phrases.

Your brain has to process all of this in real time. If conversations sometimes feel overwhelming, it may simply mean you're ready for the next level of training. Find out your exact level with our quick, free fluency quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com slash fluency score.

That's allearsenglish.com slash F-L-U-E-N-C-Y-S-C-O-R-E. All right, Aubrey. So what are some ways that our listeners can take this new concept that maybe today's the first time they've heard about it and start talking about it in English to practice and to connect? Yeah, we're excited for you to have these conversations.

But this is definitely one of those things that you have to be aware that whoever you're talking to may never have heard this term before. So we've recommended this in the past as a way to do that. So our first recommendation is to start the conversation with something like this. I was listening to a podcast about lookism, where people experience discrimination based on their appearance.

Do you think that happens a lot? So I wouldn't say something like I was listening to a podcast about lookism. Have you heard of that? Do you know what that is?

I would start it sort of assuming that they haven't heard this term and then say it this way where you kind of automatically very briefly define it and then jump right into the conversation. Yeah, for sure. And I can't overemphasize how common this chunk is these days out in the world. I was listening to a podcast about X.

It's so common. It's the easiest way to start a conversation because it takes out that... sort of condescension of like, I heard about this, right? Everyone listens to podcasts.

It's such a easy medium to be like, I randomly heard about this on a podcast. I'm not setting myself up as more learned or intelligent than the person I'm talking to.

Exactly. It's just so funny, because we started the show in 2013. And that wasn't a thing you heard anywhere. No one knew what a podcast was. It's just it's such a cultural shift that we've gone through in the last 10, 13 years.

It's amazing. I don't know. So and then yeah, so this second thing I want to recommend is you can say like, have you heard of lookism, but what you're doing is immediately sharing that you had not before. Because this is such an uncommon term.

Most likely the person that you're talking to would just say, no, I haven't. What's that? You don't want to set yourself up as an expert. That could hurt the connection.

So what you can say is something like, hey, have you heard of lookism? I had not heard of it before, but I just heard a podcast about it. Yes, exactly. And, you know, some follow-up questions that we could have, you could then, you know, if the response is people are curious, whoever you're talking to, you could ask, have you ever witnessed or do you feel like you've ever seen it?

Maybe more casually, right? Have you ever witnessed lookism? Do you feel like you've ever seen this or experienced it? What else, Aubrey, could we ask?

Or are you guilty of it? Like you could admit yourself, be like, I definitely feel like I've been guilty of this. What about you, right? Admit that vulnerability.

Yeah. Yes. Or you could ask, is it common where you live and work? It's also really interesting to talk about standards of beauty, which would be a slightly different topic.

But what is considered beautiful in your culture? Definitely. Yeah. It would be interesting to find out how that's different with who you're talking to.

Yeah. Just yesterday, we ran our fluency party, which we run once a month for anyone in any one of our courses. And we were talking about sunscreen and tanning, right, Aubrey? Yes.

That's a good example. I thought of this lookism when we had that conversation because this, of course, is different across cultures, depending on beauty standards. Here in the United States, that sun-kissed, a little bit tanned skin is a beauty standard, but that's not how it is around the world necessarily.

Exactly. It's fascinating. So, all right, Aubrey, are we going to dive into a role play here to show our listeners how we might talk about this together? Yeah, let's do it.

So here you and I are friends chatting at lunch. I'll start us out. All right. I was listening to a podcast about lookism where people experience discrimination based on their appearance.

Do you think that happens a lot? Yeah, I do. I don't think people always realize they're doing it, but first impressions can be really powerful. Yeah.

I agree. Have you ever caught yourself making assumptions about someone based on how they look? Honestly, yeah. I have assumed someone was unfriendly because they looked serious, and then after talking to them, they turned out to be really kind.

Oh, that's a great example. Do you think social media makes it worse? Probably, yeah. We're constantly seeing carefully chosen photos, so it's easy to judge people based on appearances.

That's true. It's a good reminder to give people a chance before jumping to conclusions. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. I think most people will probably admit, yes, they've experienced this and experienced it and done it, right?

I'm sure. And it's a great conversation to strike up. It is interesting. It's going to be interesting to see whoever you're talking to how they respond, where the conversation goes, because there are so many possibilities, right?

You could end up talking more about someone could share specific experiences they've had at work or in their life or specific times when they felt like they judged someone else. Always going to be a way to connect because people are going to start sharing truths about themselves. Yes, 100%. All right, Aubrey.

So anything we want to go through in the role play here? Do we have any? We didn't really have key phrases today, which is kind of nice. A little refreshing change, right?

We're talking about a concept today. Right. It's not about the vocabulary. It's about the concept and what a great conversation topic it is and how to start that conversation.

Because it is tricky if you just say like... do you know what lookism is? And you've heard this podcast, you've been delving into it, and they just are like, no, what's that? This is a mistake, a conversation mistake that a lot of people do, where they set themselves up as an expert.

And now you're in a position where you need to just lecture them, share all this information. And that's not a fun conversation. So if instead, you make it collaborative like this, just share you heard about it on a podcast and go from there. That's such a better way to connect over a conversation.

Yeah, we'd call that a conversation killer, setting yourself up as an expert from the beginning, right? Let me share all of the information I heard with you.

I mean, there's a whole woman-splaining, man-splaining thing that happens, which just is nauseating for me. We want to be careful to avoid that, right? There are better ways to have a conversation about something you've been learning about that the person you're talking to might. And you might find that someone's like, yes, I've just read an article about that.

And then the conversation would go, you know, and you both are more informed. Yes. All right, guys, there's another great episode. If you love today's episode, go check out another one.

Keep listening to All There's English. It's episode 2698. In a while or for a while. Tricky English grammar explained. We'll show you when to use each of these.

Very important for basic grammar. Absolutely. Go check it out. And if you missed that episode, you might not be following the podcast. So wherever you're listening, follow All There's English so you never miss any of our episodes.

All right. Sounds great, Aubrey. You have a good rest of your day. You too. Thanks, Lindsay. Bye. All right. Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English.

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