Beauty may be only skin deep, but the damages associated with its absence go much deeper. Unattractive individuals are less likely to be hired and promoted, and are assumed less likely to have desirable traits, such as goodness, kindness, and honesty. Three quarters of women considerappearance important to their self image and over a third rank it as the most important factor. Our annual global investment in appearance totals close to $200 billion.The Beauty Bias explores our cultural preoccupation with attractiveness, the costs it imposes, and the responses it demands. Deborah Rhode describes the social, biological, market, and media forces that have contributed to appearance-related problems, as well as feminism's difficulties inconfronting them. The book also reveals why it matters. Appearance-related bias infringes fundamental rights, compromises merit principles, reinforces debilitating stereotypes, and compounds the disadvantages of race, class, and gender. Yet only one state and a half dozen localities explicitlyprohibit such discrimination. The Beauty Bias provides the first systematic survey of how appearance laws work in practice, and a compelling argument for extending their reach. The book also offers case histories of invidious discrimination and presents a plausible legal and political strategy foraddressing them.