Sociologist Erving Goffman famously described life as a stage where we manage impressions through performance. At work, that stage is mediated first and foremost by our bodies. The workplace, despite increasing digitization, remains a profoundly visual and aesthetic arena, where bodies are not neutral but always speaking—through size, shape, color, disability, asymmetry, age, or presence. In this environment, biases tied to appearance—lookism—continue to shape who is hired, promoted, heard, or sidelined.

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This cultural research combines social sciences, contemporary case studies, and generational analysis. Through literature reviews, media analysis, and a discussion workshop, the project maps how aesthetic judgments operate in the workplace and explores how they may be challenged.

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Key insights

• Appearance still carries weight in hiring and career progression
• The body is never “just” a body—it's coded, read, judged
• Gen Z brings fresh attitudes to the workplace, valuing authenticity, vulnerability, and community over polished corporate image
• Representations of diversity remain contested, even as inclusion discourse grows
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Organizations must move beyond surface-level diversity to address embodied biases. This requires not only new policies but deeper cultural change: acknowledging aesthetic bias, redefining professionalism, and creating space for diverse bodies to be seen and heard on their own terms. Gen Z’s lived values may offer a cultural inflection point, but it will take collective effort to make workplaces truly body-inclusive.

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