"Liking What You See: A Documentary"

2002 Chiang, Ted (b. 1967). “Liking What You See: A Documentary.” In his Stories of Your Life and Others (New York: Tor, 2002), 281-323 plus author’s note (331). First publication. Rpt. in The James Tiptree Award Anthology 3. Ed. Karen Joy Fowler, Pat Murphy, Debbie Notkin, and Jeffrey D. Smith (San Francisco, CA: Tachyon Publications, 2007), 113-49. PSt

Whether this suggests a eutopia or a dystopia is up to the reader. “Lookism”, or prejudice against unattractive people, has been added to racism and sexism as a social problem and a solution has been found in a neurological treatment that ensures that “good” looks do not register with the viewer. A campaign to require the treatment at a college campus fails, but it does so as a result of the enhancement of a speaker against it, a speaker paid by the cosmetics industry. Chinese-American author.