Kristen, the only problem here is that beauty IS attractive. It's attractive to men. And it's attractive to women. Most people will pick competent over looks, but if all factors are even, then the better looking person tends to win. Horribly unfair and not politically correct (after all, the less attractive person should be advantaged, right?). It's not just about how men perceive women; it's about how both sexes perceive each other, and people like being around attractive people of the opposite sex.
I suspect it is extremely rare that people get hired on looks alone. But what does happen is that when there is a ridiculous surplus of qualified candidates, the better looking one gets hired. Being truly beautiful may be a disadvantage because the opposite sex will tend to have a difficult time measuring competence in a brief window of time, and will become suspicious--but being "above average" is a great help. The men whom you dismiss so energetically are pointing to a truth that won't be wiped out by political correctness. And that is that people respond to beauty, period. If anything, women are more sensitive to this factor (in both women and men!), than men are.
