Lookism in scholarly literature: History and potential future for fashion and beauty studies

‘Lookism’ is a term that has emerged in recent decades to describe appearance biases or discrimination. Although the term had not been used until the twentieth century, beauty bias has existed since ancient times. In recent history, the term was developed to capture social injustices based on how one appears. Individuals perceived as unattractive are discriminated against in hiring practices and experience shame and health issues such as anxiety, anorexia and depression. Some clarity is needed to address how lookism is defined and examined. We think it can be a useful concept for beauty scholars to better understand perceived appearances, bridging across looks that include both the body and dress. Therefore, we systematically examined scholarly literature since the term’s inception and/or scholarly works on the topic’s availability online to identify how lookism has been defined and measured across time. We completed a content analysis to identify the themes and methods used to study lookism. Our focus included the context of lookism (e.g. the workplace), definitions of lookism, sample characteristics and approaches to measurement. We found 65 scholarly works on lookism using multiple definitions and representing a recent rise in scholarship and suggest that this increase may be related to technological advances and social media, as well as awareness regarding issues of social inclusion, with recent scholarship using lookism to capture the discriminatory nature of lookism. There were gaps in the literature on lookism, such as limited studies that considered clothing. Fashion and beauty scholars can work together to fill these gaps.