Model moans that employers ‘judge’ her for being too attractive

A model says she is often discriminated against because she’s too attractive and claims to be hampered by employers because her make up is perfect. 

Newly crowned Miss Universe Australia and Melbourne fashion blogger Maria Thattil, 27, has a bachelor degree in psychology and a masters in human resources. 

She now works as a high-flying talent recruiter for the federal government.

But along the way the beauty queen was told her stunning looks and perfect make-up would set her back.

‘I was told even in my internship, very early just starting my career, you need to be extra nice to people because you’re pretty, therefore they’re going to assume you’re stuck up,’ she told news.com.

Coming from a senior female colleague, she said it was especially ‘disheartening’.

She recalled how a male superior once commented on her glamorous outfits and the amount of make up she wore.

On another occasion she was told she probably only got the job because the man who interviewed her found her attractive – even though she was interviewed over the phone by two women.

Ms Thattil understands that it’s human nature for others to ‘make judgments of people’ based on physical characteristics, but in her new Mind With Me Instagram video series to her 65,000 follows she said: ‘Who you are isn’t dictated by someone else’s perception.’

‘If we see a woman in leadership, who is firm in her decision making… it means that she might not be empathetic and she must be a little bit hard,’ Ms Thattil said.

‘If you’ve got a smart woman that is intelligent and ambitious, she can’t possibly be beautiful, sensual and creative as well.

‘We make inferences about people based on limited knowledge, based on labels, stereotypes and a lack of representation.’

Born in Australia to Indian parents, she said it’s important to acknowledge that society has very changing standards of beauty and that people didn’t always admire her dark skin tone and slightly ‘bigger’ lips.

‘That at the moment is being glorified as a trend and now the media and society has determined that is attractive,’ she said.

She admits she does have ‘certain privileges’ right now because she fits ‘certain ideals’.

‘Having that means I need to use that responsibility to speak on the things that matter, but I’ve also experienced prejudice, and I’ve also been othered and I’ve also been someone who is excluded because I didn’t always meet the threshold for what it is to be successful, beautiful, worth or valuable,’ Ms Thattil said

But she takes exception to those who believe she won the Miss Universe Australia pageant last month, only based on her looks.

‘Someone had made a remark that perhaps I had won this competition because of my beauty and that sort of thing completely negates the work ethic, the values, what I would do with the platform, what I am doing with the platform now,’ Ms Thattil said.