Face-ism

Face-ism or facial prominence is the relative prominence of the face in the portrayal of men and women; media tend to focus more on men's faces and women's bodies.

Origin and evidence

The term "face-ism" or "facial prominence" was initially defined in a 1983 study in which facial prominence was measured by a "Face-ism index", which is the ratio of two linear measurements, with the distance (in millimeters or any other unit) from the top of the head to the lowest visible point of the chin being the numerator and the distance from the top of the head to the lowest visible part of the subject's body the denominator. It was found that across societies and time, facial prominence of men has been much higher than that of women.

Subsequent studies have generated consistent findings and thus helped confirm the pervasive presence of face-ism. For instance, a prevalent face-ism phenomenon was observed in news magazines and women's magazines of the 1970s and 1980s. Face-ism has been documented in prime-time television programs. Evidence has been shown that face-ism is still present in mainstream printed media from as recently as 2004, and showed that men in intellectually focused occupations tend to have higher face-to-body ratios than women in similar professions, while women in physical occupations tend to have higher face-to-body ratios than men in similar professions. A cross-cultural study on face-ism found that face-ism in photographs of politicians is more pronounced in gender-egalitarian societies compared to gender-unequal societies.