“Erotic capital” is a term coined by Catherine Hakim in 2010 in Prospect Magazine.
Granted, we first heard of this term over seven years ago, the psychology behind it is coming closer and closer to the spotlight today. Erotic capital simply refers to the combination of social and physical appeal a person or a candidate, in our case, has to a potential employer or business partner.
Career fields, taking real estate for example, whose earning potential is reliant upon people “liking you” enough to send their business your way are the places you see this idea taking off. But the question behind it is the morality.
Those people who believe that erotic capital should be taken into consideration also have to support the notion that physical fitness, liveliness, and charm -- among many -- are qualities just as, if not more, important than any real qualifications a candidate has.
Unfair as it seems, in career fields where the most successful people are the ones who can walk the walk and talk the talk, can you blame employers for thinking this way?
According to Hakim, women typically possess more of the aspects that allow them to capitalize on their erotic capital in comparison to men. Subtle changes from the way a woman angles her body while sitting to the dress she wears to the amount of eye contact she makes can change the tone of the meeting.
Men, on the other hand, are more limited, with fewer options as to what they can take advantage of -- although they can still dress up (or down) based on their environment.
Recently, while watching a show called Mindhunter on Netflix, one of the main female leads discusses how to make someone feel comfortable sitting across a table from you. She knew all of the ins and outs; crossing your legs towards your subject, keeping your arms uncrossed and open, making plenty of eye contact in order to show that you are a dominant person and not easily made uncomfortable.
These little changes in the way that you interact with a person make all of the difference not only in how you are perceived physically but also how you are perceived as a social being.
But when it comes to an interview, should how you look be taken more seriously than your academic achievements?
In certain fields, it is. Those fields whose necessary skills can be taught and learned, all the same, are those that typically we see emphasizing the use of erotic capital more and more.
One could easily assume that this is because a majority of those fields are ones that require you to speak well and look good doing it. And in that case, it is more difficult to be taught how to act than how to do a task-- at least in the eyes of those supporters of erotic capital.
The real debate about it is: is it fair? But, as the saying goes oftentimes, life isn’t fair. Those people who were born with outstanding social graces and beauty are winning over those who are educated and academically well-rounded in today's society (in the fields where it means something to be “pretty”). So to those who have both -- well, you have the rest of us beat.
