Who are you like?

no-one has heard of you so don’t come on other people’s blog’s and disrespect them because your jealous.

There’s a word for people like you ….. t***a

from your post, is obvious that you dont really need (me) to say that you are right; though, as i was reading this post, i was thinking about girls at my university, they share the same problem, of feeling “out of place” whilst trying to study web development. as so, it afects their works and have noticed that their “love” for the subject they are studeing, is fading out. few have said, after their studies they are going to try to work something different.

so it be nice if these messages were made a bit more mainstream

;o)

Secondly, you’re damn right that someone who’s in a minority should be able to accept the benefits and be unhappy about the drawbacks.

My 4-year-old niece is black. Overall, I hope it’s not a negative, but I know that sadly, it will cause her more problems than the benefits it brings as her life goes on.

There will be times being a black girl will work to her advantage, I’m sure.

Does that mean she has to put up with racist comments?

Cause that’s basically what you’re saying an attractive girl should have to put up with the equivalent.

I’ve got a friend who’s in a wheelchair. There are some pluses to this, like he sometimes gets upgraded to first class on the train.

Is it OK for me to call him a “cripple”?

Cause I don’t see how that’s different.

I kind of agree with that, but at the same time feedback or criticism doesn’t always have to come from someone within the industry and the integrity of the feedback doesn’t necessarily depend on the sources work. Just a thought.

Peace out

Humans are indeed notoriously affected by their emotions; an emotional response from a human (or any mammal) is based off of raw instict, a learned response (or ‘story’ in their head), or a combination of the two.

One person may have made up the story (through past influence from peers, parents or experience) that women cannot be tech savvy or capable. Lets say that person is a man. That man may interview a woman who he finds attractive, which will cause an emotional response from him (instict) which may cloud his logical thought process. That man is now conflicted between his emotion, his experience (story) and his raw logic in the moment evaluating the skill and appropriate fit of that woman for the project/company. All three of these things will now play a part in his decision.

In this particular example, the woman’s gender and attractiveness has caused both an advantage and a disadvantage to her potential acquiring of work, even though those aspects have no relevancy. Other variations can be logically extrapolated, however the point remains that the person doing the hiring was biased, though the sway of the bias will vary from person to person.

It is no psychological secret that looks are a part of how people are perceived. A male for example will likely be viewed as more ‘charming’ if he is physically attractive; for him, holding the attention of another person will often be easier than if he was not – this is not limited to any one profession (that would be a ridiculous conclusion). It is only limited by the people he interacts with and their individual biases.

A personal example:
I use this very much to my advantage; I am attractive, I dress well, am well spoken, and have learned the psychology of human interaction. These factors in combination absolutely give me an advantage – if ANY one of them were lacking, I would be less effective at ensuring my message/proposal/etc gets absorbed and understood in my favor (and if any were in more abundance, it would have the opposite affect). The flip side is that I also do have barriers of entry in certain situations due to those very same factors; other ‘alpha males’ potentially see me as competition even if I were to be hired ‘under’ them (instinct), and because of my outgoing nature / dress-style and age (29 but been in professional IT for 15 years), sometimes I am not immediately take seriously despite my extensive and powerful references and past results.

My only point is the physical attractiveness (as well as dress, posture, speech, gender) potentially has an effect on every human interaction, though whether that effect is ‘positive’ or ‘productive’ is entirely based upon the individual situation and persons involved.

As in my first comment (2nd comment on the blog post), I will re-iterate something in a different way in light of this context; people who are swayed more by these biases and emotion than clear reasonable thought are less influential and often do not reach very high nor achieve very much (with a few notable exceptions) as compared to people who rise above their reactionary minds.

To make a personal statement: does physical attractiveness, gender, etc. affect me? yes. Do I allow it to cloud my judgement in business? not a chance. Did that take effort and awareness of my own thoughts to master? yes.

Finally, no one gets a free ride on those external factors. In this particular industry, it is the work its self that will speak and BUILD a business and a reputation. Before I was good at any one thing, I did in fact charm my way into industries – but then I worked harder than anyone; in light of it all, I’ll take any advantage I can get; then I’ll make good on it and work my tail off, giving back more than any leeway I’ve received. If I get hired for being charming, so be it, but no one is going to regret it.

Cheers.

~Zachariah

There’s no reason for this thread to turn sour, a healthy debate is good but getting nasty and petty isn’t productive for anyone.