Latest discrimation problem: ugly kids
Posted by Richard on May 4, 2005
The NY Times (reg. required; use BugMeNot) reports on a Canadian study of how parents treat their kids in supermarkets, "Ugly Children May Get Parental Short Shrift." The accompanying illustration alone is worth the visit.
The researchers observed how parents treated kids and rated the physical attractiveness of the kids. They concluded that parents showed less concern for ugly kids:
When it came to buckling up, pretty and ugly children were treated in starkly different ways, with seat belt use increasing in direct proportion to attractiveness. …
Homely children were also more often out of sight of their parents, and they were more often allowed to wander more than 10 feet away.
Remember the phrase "a face only a mother could love"? I guess it’s not that simple.
It’s only a matter of time until some child advocates focus on the pulchritudinally challenged. They’ll want these clock-stoppers designated as a protected class deserving of anti-discrimination measures and some kind of "reasonable accommodations" of their handicap. Didn’t Vonnegut address this problem in "Harrison Bergeron"?
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