beauty and careers
There is a lovely woman on my google plus feed who is also a surgeon. Not just any surgeon, but a thorassic. Heart surgery and stuff, you know? I mean, it's so very traditional male, right? And she's young and beautiful. I do mean beautiful. So pretty she knows it kind of lovely, and nobody argues. this woman could be modelling, acting, or just attracting a heart surgeon, but she isn't, she's doing it herself.
Why is it so rare? Are women in that career still rare? Well, I don't know, but I know it's startling and i know why. Not so much because she's female, but because she's a pretty female. Do you know that people think they have a stake in a woman's beauty? That even strangers sometimes think it's important enough to address? Apparently so! I ran into it and I wasn't even all that pretty. Oh I was a lovely young woman, but pictures would have shown a pretty ordinary level of pretty, not this knock-down heartbreak beauty I see on my g+ feed.
This woman will have been told she is too pretty to be hidden away in a surgery. She'd have been told she should go for pediatrician if she wants to be a doctor, because children are pretty too. She'll have had this conversation repeatedly with both trusted advisors and nosey strangers since she first began the plan. It's not the schooling or even some glass ceiling that would have been the hardest part of achieving this career. It's not the money or the long hours, it's the constant pestering by people who have narrowly defined roles for beauty. People who act like that fact that you're aesthetically pleasing puts you in a different class from others and you carry a national treasure for which you're responsible.
No, seriously, people treat pretty people as though they've got something special that they're charged with keeping safe. Then they turn around and punish these same people for how they're treated, or the attitude they may get from being treated that way. Whether you're jealous, attracted, or merely bemused by a pretty person, notice you are giving them more attention than the crowd around. That's the reason others get jealous and it's NOT the pretty person's fault all the time. No more than the ugly person getting hit in the face when you let go the door is to blame for your treatment of him.
Why is it so rare? Are women in that career still rare? Well, I don't know, but I know it's startling and i know why. Not so much because she's female, but because she's a pretty female. Do you know that people think they have a stake in a woman's beauty? That even strangers sometimes think it's important enough to address? Apparently so! I ran into it and I wasn't even all that pretty. Oh I was a lovely young woman, but pictures would have shown a pretty ordinary level of pretty, not this knock-down heartbreak beauty I see on my g+ feed.
This woman will have been told she is too pretty to be hidden away in a surgery. She'd have been told she should go for pediatrician if she wants to be a doctor, because children are pretty too. She'll have had this conversation repeatedly with both trusted advisors and nosey strangers since she first began the plan. It's not the schooling or even some glass ceiling that would have been the hardest part of achieving this career. It's not the money or the long hours, it's the constant pestering by people who have narrowly defined roles for beauty. People who act like that fact that you're aesthetically pleasing puts you in a different class from others and you carry a national treasure for which you're responsible.
No, seriously, people treat pretty people as though they've got something special that they're charged with keeping safe. Then they turn around and punish these same people for how they're treated, or the attitude they may get from being treated that way. Whether you're jealous, attracted, or merely bemused by a pretty person, notice you are giving them more attention than the crowd around. That's the reason others get jealous and it's NOT the pretty person's fault all the time. No more than the ugly person getting hit in the face when you let go the door is to blame for your treatment of him.