Aesthetic Discrimination

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Discrimination, as defined by Merriam-Webster is the practice of unfairly treating a person or group of people differently from other people or groups of people. From that definition, it is inferred that aesthetic discrimination is the discrimination of anything to do with appearance, alteration, or not. In this day and age aesthetic discrimination is more generalized into tattoos, piercings and how people wear their hair. However, with this case comes a new set of problems: discrimination against people with prominent tattoos and body alterations.
The new century brings about a new set of workers, Generation Y, also known as the Millennial Generation, comes with a plethora of body art, piercings, and hair dos that are all seen as a way of expression and identity versus being just a “phase”. "A study recently published in the Journal of American Academy of Dermatology indicated 24 percent of people ages 18 to 50 have at least one tattoo." (Farah) This causes a great problem in the workplace because of the way companies and workers in general are judged for having employees that openly show their tattoos and do not take out their piercings. In the up and coming age of new workers a more “liberal” work field of aesthetic discrimination should be replaced with a sense of openness and curiosity.
The root of the issue with aesthetic discrimination comes from the work place itself. Many work places have policies that involve hiding tattoos and taking out facial piercings, some workplaces, even state that they will not hire someone who has body art. “Tattoos must be discreetly and completely covered at all times. Jewelry, spacers, retainers, or plugs are not permitted in any body piercing, including non-visible piercings, while working...

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... issues not previous contemplated, and have taken their dress code policies back to the drawing board." (Hazen, Syrdahl) It seems silly to have something so trivial be controversial in the work place as a work of art on someone’s body. The controversy can stem from a few different places; people claiming to be offended by body art, or the underlying tone of religion and whether or not having body art deems someone acceptable enough to be accepted into their perspective after life. However, the people who think tattoos are degrading and are offended by them don’t realize that there are ways to cover tattoos. Many people go into job interviews and cover up their tattoos for fear of being mischaracterized; if a person has a sleeve tattoo and wears a long sleeve shirt to cover it up, the interviewer, would never be able to tell that, that person, would have a tattoo.

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