A reflection on lookism culture.

Recently, the lookism culture - a prejudice or discrimination towards people who are physically unattractive- has caught my interest.  After days of researching this topic and falling into the rabbit hole, I've reached several conclusions (which are, of course, just my humble opinion). It's a long post, so hang on tight! 

1. intellectuals would have us believe that beauty is inconsequential. Since it explains nothing, solves nothing, and teaches us nothing, it should not have a place in intellectual discourse. And we are supposed to breathe a collective sigh of relief. After all, the concept of beauty has become an embarrassment. 

But there is something wrong with this picture. Outside the realm of ideas, beauty rules: Nobody has stopped looking at it, and no one has stopped enjoying the sight. We can say that beauty is dead, but all that does is widen the chasm between the real world and our understanding of it. 

2. Appearance is the most public part of the self. It is our sacrament, the visible self that the world assumes to be a mirror of the invisible, inner self. 

This assumption may not be fair, but that does not make it any less true. We are always sizing up other people's looks: our beauty detectors never close up shop and call it a day. We notice the attractiveness of each face we see automatically as we register whether or not they look familiar. 

3. Beauty is a basic pleasure. Try to imagine that you have become immune to beauty. Chances are, you would consider yourself unwell. The absence of response to physical beauty is one sign of depression - so prevalent that the standard screening measures for depression include a question about changes in the perception of one's physical attractiveness. (e.g., the CES-D)

4. Beauty has consequences that we cannot erase by denial. People do extreme things in the name of beauty. You argue the fact that beauty is relative and subjective, yet half of the world's population believes that grooming themselves according to the highest standard will make them part of a community. The pursuit of beauty has reached epic proportions, and this is a sign of a diseased culture. Either the world is engaged in mass insanity or there is method in this madness. Because deep within we all know something: no one can withstand appearances. 

So, survival of the prettiest or survival of the fittest? That's the question.