Beauty and…other things

I’m just going to go ahead and say here that judging people based on how attractive they are is the EXACT SAME offense as judging people negatively based on how unattractive they are.

In other words, people need to stop being shallow and making far-fetched assumptions about others solely based on their looks.

This rant (yes, this is one of those rant posts) was prompted by me getting sick to death of hearing whiny comments like these: “Pretty people suck…pretty people get everything they want…pretty people don’t have to work for anything.”  I also recently came across a video entitled “Can Pretty Girls Be Funny?” (a very stupid question) in which a suggestion was made that “pretty people tend to not struggle”, and thus why they are less qualified to be comedians.

First off, if you, reader, are wondering if this post is written by a so-called pretty person, I admit that I really don’t know if I’m pretty or not.  I tend to break out and my hair is on the unruly side.  But my mom and dad think I’m adorable. When I get dressed up for an evening, my friends make it a point to compliment my appearance.  My current boyfriend appreciates me.  But if I am pretty, it certainly has not saved me from getting rejected in the past by guys that I fancied.  I have been scolded and criticized (for good reasons) several times by my superiors.  I have both failed and succeeded.  I admit that I do suffer periodically from the fear that a hot Victoria’s Secret angel will swoop in one day to take my boyfriend away from me.

I guess I’m pretty average.

But I have observed that those who are perceived as attractive are the receiving end of a lot of resentment and pure jealousy.

Usually, when people are too focused on someone’s appearance, it is very easy to overlook their abstract qualities, such as personality, intelligence, integrity, personal values, etc.  This can work against any type of appearance.  But I notice when someone is attractive, people who consider themselves otherwise refuse to believe that the attractive person can have any other good qualities besides their good physique.

Basically, people perceive a beautiful person as already ahead in the game of life, so they don’t deserve any other positive traits.  How dare someone be good-looking and successful at the same time???  How dare they be pretty and studious and smart?!  How dare they be attractive AND funny?!  ALL PRETTY PEOPLE ARE EVIL!

This bullcrap needs to stop.  We, as people, need to accept the fact that some people are born winning the genetic lottery and others are not.  Life isn’t fair.  But that doesn’t give us average people a license to be superficial bitches, discriminating against people solely based on how they look and occasionally blaming them when we don’t get what we want, like a job or a boyfriend/girlfriend.

I will go as far as admitting that good-looking people do get ahead in the dating game since a lot of dating is about attraction.  Also, people trying to make it in the entertainment industry are judged more on their beauty.  But not everything in life depends on looks.  Good looks doesn’t keep a family member from dying, from being born into poverty, financial struggles, accidents, and other tragic events.  People, at the end of the day, are more than their looks and we need to stop assuming someone’s background and how many struggles they went through based solely on their appearance.

Just look at this bitch admiring a daffodil.