Pulchronomics is the economic study of beauty, birthed by labor economist Daniel Hamermesh. The idea is that one’s appearance can affect (raise) their earning potential. Additionally, the more beautiful among us are held to a higher standard and are hit with a "beauty penalty" (i.e., decreased wages) if they don’t meet these expectations. However, what happens when they meet or even exceed expectations? Well, for women sometimes they are still penalized, as Victoria’s Secret model and software engineer Lyndsey Scott knows too well.
As her website will tell you, the highly accomplished 34-year-old is ranked as one of the top iOS responders on Stack Overflow; is part of the prestigious iOS tutorial team at RayWenderlich.com, and has done video tutorials for kids along with Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg on Code.org. With all of these esteemed achievements, it hasn’t stopped Instagram trolls from doubting this Victoria's Secret code engineer. A user on Reddit created a thread a thread to highlight this misogynistic thought titled ‘Apparently, it’s impossible for women to be smart and beautiful at the same time,’ with a screenshot of some of their comments. Not one to sit around, Lyndsey Scott took on her haters in one epically glorious response. Scroll down below to see how this Victoria's Secret model's story unfolded.
This is Lyndsey Scott, a model for many prestigious brands
Image credits: lyndsey360
She is also the first African-American women to receive a Calvin Klein exclusive
Image credits: lyndsey360
After her recent Victoria's Secret gig people started looking into her more and found out that she's not only a model
For some reason, not everyone could wrap their head around it:
Scott, however, cleared things up quickly with this reply
If you go to her website you will see her numerous coding project accomplishments, which includes being the lead iOS developer on a new mobile video app
Image credits: lyndsey360
She explained in another comment that normally she ignores the haters but it was necessary to shed light on this issue in tech
Across platforms, Scott has been profiled for her multi-faceted talents
Image credits: lyndsey360
Image credits: lyndsey360
Image credits: lyndsey360
Other commenters who saw the story on Reddit shared their similar experiences
