Kata Kita: Journal of Language, Literature, and Teaching
Vol. 13 No. 1 (2025)

The Black Mirror—Stories: Creating A Short Story Collection Highlighting Beauty Penalty Phenomenon in the Indonesian Society

Natasya Aurelia Puspo (Petra Christian University)
Stefanny Irawan (Petra Christian University)



Article Info

Publish Date
18 Mar 2025

Abstract

Beauty penalty is a phenomenon which occurs in society which imposes disadvantages on attractive people. However, as this phenomenon has largely been acknowledged in the confinement of one individual’s testimony to another without adequate further study, the majority of people still ignore it. Despite its prevalence and significance, the beauty penalty phenomenon lacks deeper discussion, especially in Indonesia. In response to this reality, this paper explores the triggers to beauty penalty and multiple forms which the beauty penalty affects one’s life using the concept of perceived entitlement by Margaret Lee et al., the concept of unmet expectations by Catherine Eckel and Rick Wilson, and the concept of beauty penalty forms by Stephen Marson and Joanne Hessmiller as the theoretical framework. We explore this topic by designing a short story collection to show how people’s perceived entitlement and unmet expectations of the attractive protagonists as the triggers to beauty penalty occurrence. In addition, the work shows that the beauty penalty phenomenon can manifest in forms such as social penalties, mental problems, emotional disturbances, and physical challenges. Thus, the protagonists must face their own forms of beauty penalty to achieve their goals.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

sastra-inggris

Publisher

Subject

Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media

Description

Kata Kita is a journal dedicated to the publication of students research in the areas of literature, language, and teaching. In the study of language, it covers issues in applied linguistics such as sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis, pragmatics, sylistics, corpus ...