Womanly virtues Friday

See if you can guess how this turns out
A young woman tried an experiment:

Carolyn Owlett pulled her hair back into a ponytail, threw on a frumpy skirt, and walked around London asking if she could have everything for free, from a bus ride to a piece of cake. Most people looked at her like she was crazy. Then she curled her hair into shiny ringlets, put on makeup, a tight dress, and high heels, and did the same thing.

So any guesses about her results?  Congratulations, you guessed right: people gave her free stuff the second time.

But what is the hypothesis here? At the link above we see one possibility: for in this question there is an implied hypothesis:

Have you witnessed the ways society rewards conventionally beautiful women or experienced them firsthand?

But that implied hypothesis is false. To test that one you'd have to get two separate women—one conventionally beautiful and one not—and dress them in similar if not identical ways and see how people respond. This experiment was conducted with the same woman dressed differently.

In fact, the conclusion that the woman who did the experiment draws is so ludicrously wrong that no one could possibly believe this unless they were willfully missing the point, which is exactly what is going on.

What the experiment proves is that any woman who takes the trouble to present herself as a sexual being will be treated better by men than the woman who does not. She doesn't have to offer actual sex to anyone, she just has to be a clearly sexual being.

To go back to the link above, I'd like to consider this conclusion for a moment:

The results of her one-woman experiment are depressing, but also fascinating to watch.

Depressing? Really? To believe that these results are depressing, you'd have to believe that things should not be this way. What would you believe to the contrary? Well, you'd have to believe that women should be loved just for being what they are. If you watch the video at the length all the way to the end, you'll see that that is what Carolyn Owlett clearly does believe.

The experiment tells us something just about anybody could have guessed: if you put a little effort into your self presentation people will treat you differently. I can vouch for that: any time I put my best charcoal-grey suit men are more respectful (although sometimes intimidated) and women, especially young women, are more attentive.

What is new is that women like Carolyn Owlett and the blogger I link to above find this depressing. They believe they should be loved regardless of presentation. "Love me for who I am," they say and even suggest that there is something terribly unfair about the notion that we might expect others to make some effort with their self presentation.

Other people will treat you better if you make an effort with your appearance. That is what Carolyn Owlett has proved. For some reason she thinks that is terribly unfair.