Sociologist Catherine Hakim has written extensively on employment, labour markets and sex discrimination. Known for her theory of “Erotic Capital”, she argues that sexual attractiveness is measurable as social and economic asset, and that beauty can be used as a tool for the empowerment of women. Hakim identifies the favouring of the intellect as a symptom of Western civilization’s traditional preoccupation with anti-sensuality: a puritanical mentality that we should have outgrown.
The novelist Jim Crace – shortlisted for the 2013 Booker Prize – believes that giving the physical preference over the intellectual is unjust. At the core of his contention is the role that luck plays against hard work and determination. He argues that people should be judged by what they have control over, and that we should strive to separate character and characteristics.
But is there scope for considering beauty as part of one’s personality? Beauty runs deeper than the surface, according to Hannah Dawson, prominent university intellectual and historian of ideas. Like Catherine Hakim, Dawson recognises the gender dimension is integral to this discussion. She asserts that women’s appearances are subject to considerably more scrutiny than men’s, and accepts the role of beauty and attractiveness in the workplace. However, she wants to see an end to this discrimination and urges us to value action over appearance.
How would a shift in the value we attribute to intelligence and beauty change our world? Philosopher Julian Baggini chairs this debate from IAI TV to ask that very question.
Patrick Driver
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