Aesthetic Labour Essay

The concept of aesthetic labor is a useful sociological intervention for understanding how the value of certain looks is constructed, and how looks matter for social stratification. Aesthetic labor is the practice of screening, managing, and controlling workers on the basis of their physical appearance. The trend for recruiters to select staff with self-presentation skills in preference to experience or technical skills. These skills allow the chosen staff to 'look good' and 'sound right' to customers. They encompass: body language, dress sense and style, personal grooming, voice and accents etc. 'Aesthetic labour' is a concept based on the notion that employers in parts of the service industries such as boutique hotels, designer retailers

The entire mechanism of finding and retaining “aesthetic labour” creates inequality in the labour market and the socioeconomic sphere of the country. The struggle to find the ‘right workers who look right and say the right things’ gives rise to segregation in the job market. Style, accent, fashion sense is all part of a person’s habitus and is something that people mostly don’t have any control over , which means the people who do not come from the “correct” habitus are being discriminated against. The low pay and the discount In luxury product markets means only the middle class who already has other sources of income or financial assistance from family members can get and prosper in these kind of jobs. Consumer- workers essentially consent to these “bad” low quality jobs because of the brand image and recognition it brings. They achieve satisfaction through these cultural goods and by working with people who are very similar to them in terms of habitus. These “cool” and “hip” jobs become a part of their identity and they strongly associate with the brand. Moreover, it becomes a integral part of their social life. They consent because they don’t think they are workers, they think they are consumers who knows the product very well and enjoys the respect, recognition that comes from their customers because of their product expertise. The focus on aesthetic labor means that workers don’t