human physical attractiveness is innately unfair

What some People consider good looking these days looks totally plastic to me. Puffed up lips, false eyelashes that look more like wooly caterpillars, and drawn on eyebrows, not to mention silicon implants. I’ve come to realize something, now that it’s too late. Youth is beauty. I was never beautiful, but I was young, and thus attractive.
 
I’ve got 99 problems, but physical attractiveness is not one of them. I come from a long line of appearance-challenged people. Looking at old pictures of my ancestors, they had the proverbial faces that would stop a clock! If I really work at it, I can appear average. Those who trade on their physical appearance and define themselves by it, however, tend to have a really tough time getting older. Good looks tend to walk hand in hand with youth, and flesh is grass…
 

CarolfromTX said:
What some People consider good looking these days looks totally plastic to me. Puffed up lips, false eyelashes that look more like wooly caterpillars, and drawn on eyebrows, not to mention silicon implants. I’ve come to realize something, now that it’s too late. Youth is beauty. I was never beautiful, but I was young, and thus attractive.
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Couldn't agree more. Have been watching Botched recently and cannot understand why some people want to transform themselves into bizarre parodies that they think make them more desirable.

On the other hand I applaud plastic surgeons who help people with disfiguring deformities or burns/scars. To have people stare or avert their eyes rather than look at you must be very demoralising.
 
Warrigal said:
On the other hand I applaud plastic surgeons who help people with disfiguring deformities or burns/scars.
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I had plastic surgery once. When I was 18 years old I cut my face badly with a chain saw. The surgeon was able to make the scaring much less noticeable. However my lip is still uneven, mustache helps hide that. I found the plastic surgery very painful, the surgeon wanted to do a second to fix my lip but I decided not.

As I get older the remaining scar is getting harder to see. My eyelid was split, can't even see that now. Fortunately my eye was not damaged.

IMG_3829 (002).jpg
 
CarolfromTX said:
What some People consider good looking these days looks totally plastic to me. Puffed up lips, false eyelashes that look more like wooly caterpillars, and drawn on eyebrows, not to mention silicon implants. I’ve come to realize something, now that it’s too late. Youth is beauty. I was never beautiful, but I was young, and thus attractive.
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I agree. The host of The Social, over the past few years has had quite a bit of plastic surgery. She’s a very attractive woman but is now getting to the point where she looks plastic. It really surprised me. I thought she was naturally blessed with good looks.

Having said all that, it’s her body and her choice and the main person who needs to approve is herself which she seems to have accomplished. She’s certainly a very happy camper and it’s none of anyone’s business. Maybe the fact that she’s the host of the show , puts added pressure on her to look her absolute best. 🤷‍♀️ Only she knows.
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I remember the 60 minutes show about the stockbroker, it really was kind of creepy to see men gush over another man the way they did. He had purposely said practically nothing during the interview and they were raving about how smart he was, while the short ordinary man had a better resume and talked intelligently but was ignored. No wonder we have so much stupid in the world today.

The show also had two young women, one sweet and pleasant looking, the other exceptionally pretty. They each went before a group of kindergartners, sat down without saying a word, read a short story, then left. The kids were asked who they liked best and they all agreed the pretty one was, better, nicer, kinder than the other one. It made me really sad to watch.

I experienced both sides of this most of my life. When I was younger, I wore thick glasses and was often ignored by boys, salesclerks and employers, but after age 18, I got my first pair of contacts and found out I could have men who had never even talked to me bringing me flowers and telling me how beautiful I was, and I could get hired by just walking in the door. It never went to my head, because I always knew I could only wear my contacts about 8 hours a day so eventually I'd have to take them out and get ugly. It was handy to able to look good when job hunting and dating, but it all it ever does is increase options, you still need a degree for a really good job, and you only need one person to marry. I chose wrong both times I married and ended up with men who were bored with me before the ink was dry on the license. Now, I'm old and invisible all the time and I that's just fine with me.
 
Della said:
I remember the 60 minutes show about the stockbroker, it really was kind of creepy to see men gush over another man the way they did. He had purposely said practically nothing during the interview and they were raving about how smart he was, while the short ordinary man had a better resume and talked intelligently but was ignored.
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Yep, happens all the time. Shorter men, like me, (and women probably) can get ahead but not as easily as taller. As I said above I think that comes from evolution and instinct. Being aware of it is about all we can do about it. It's also true that smart people, men or women, do better than those who are not, we don't call that discrimination although much of intelligence is hereditary, like height.

Malcolm Gladwell in his bestselling book Blink takes this argument to another level. "I polled about half of the companies on the Fortune 500 list, asking each company questions about its CEO. In my sample, I found that on average CEOs were just a shade under six feet. Given that the average American male is 5'9" that means that CEOs, as a group, have about three inches on the rest of their sex. But this statistic actually understates matters. In the U.S. population, about 14.5%. In the U.S. population, about 14.5% of all men are six feet or over. Among CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, that number is 58%. Even more strikingly, in the general American population, 3.9% of adult men are 6'2" or taller. Among my CEO sample, 30% were 6'2" or taller," writes Gladwell.

The necktie syndrome: Why CEOs tend to be significantly taller than the average male
https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...verage-male/articleshow/10178115.cms?from=mdr
 
I ran across this term, "a stud and a dud". I didn't know what that meant. Turns out, it is a gay expression for two married men- one is always handsome= the stud, and the other is usually "facially challenged" :) = the dud. When you look at married people it's true. I was an RN, so I worked with lots of women. It amazed me when I met the husbands of some very beautiful women, their husbands looked like something that lived under a bridge. And short fat, cigar smoking guys usually had thin curvy blonde wives.
 
This reminds of an instance at work, many years ago.

There was a new hire named Vicki, and we were all in the lunchroom, along with a coworker named Butch. He was all of 5'2".

She asked him his name, and when he told her, she looked a little taken aback, shook her head and said "They grow Butches a lot bigger than that where I come from."

To this day, one of the funniest things I've ever heard.
 
My youngest great-granddaughter is drop-dead gorgeous at almost four. She has the hair, the face, the charm. People stop in stores to admire her. She's Shirley Temple reincarnated. Unfortunately, she knows it.

When she gets in trouble, she turns it on. Family doesn't fall for it but soon she's going to be out in the world and there are some who ARE going to fall for it.

Luckily, she's also very, very smart. I hope, as time passes, she'll learn to use the smarts more than the looks.
 
Gary O' said:
Kick back?
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Yep, it was late in the day, I'd been cutting tree for probably 8 hours, not paying much attention. I had an old saw that did not run well, I had to goose the throttle to keep it running. The tip of the saw hit a tree as I was goosing and up the bar came... 100+ stitches.

The safety brake on today's saws would probably have prevented it. The saw I had was a big old early 60s Homelite 1020, no safety things on that one.

Didn't stop my chainsawing, but I got a whole lot more careful.
 
For me human attractiveness is being just who you are and do not hide behind cosmetic masks or the latest stylish things. Vain people have or show an excessively high opinion of one’s appearance, abilities, or worth. It can also mean producing no result or having no meaning or likelihood of fulfillment. Here is a song I like about being so vain.
 

“human physical attractiveness is innately unfair”​

Oh boo hoo! How about intelligence? Like it or not, admit it or not, some are born smarter or more physically attractive than others. Were Einstein‘s gifts to science unfair? How about athletic ability? Unfair that some can run faster, jump higher, or kick a ball further? It is the nature of humanity that we are all a product of a roll of the dice, but it is also true that the genetics of our parents can and does influence the roll of our dice. Research is underway which would allow selection of the “best“ fertilized human egg. The future may bring a smarter more handsome humanity.

https://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/2012/07/zygote-selection-eugenics-is-nearing/
 
Alligatorob said:
The safety brake on today's saws would probably have prevented it. The saw I had was a big old early 60s Homelite 1020, no safety things on that one.
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Yeah, I had the Super XL back in the 70s (still have it in my antique collection....runs great)
No brake
No guard

Ok, back on topic;
Exterior beauty is initially attractive
Unfortunately, it can become the ugliest of ugly when misused

Give me a woman with laugh lines
Crow's feet at the corners of the eyes, and creases at the corners of the mouth
and silver grey hair
My woman of 54 years has all that

I'm the cause
 
I like pretty people. Well, women. However, I've never matched the attributes usually associated with men that make women swoon. There was a time when I faked it, worked hard at it, and sometimes was successful at it. But now? I'm old. I'm not a looker. I've...... let myself go in many regards. What I've beefed up is my intelligence, empathy, and caring. I'm a catch for no-one, but when you're looking through the barrel of the end......
 
All of us MUST accept our own attributes: tall, short, fat, thin, literate, illiterate young and old. Just remember that one of our greatest Presidents was crippled and used a wheel chair. He only lived to age 63: Franklin Roosevelt. He had an ugly wife as well!
 
Anatomy, so it’s been said, is destiny. If you are male, you will rarely get a compliment on your attire or physical appearance, and should you get one, you’ll remember it forever. Patterns of interaction within the sexes are also profoundly different. It would be unthinkable, for example, for one male upon meeting another to gush, “I love your shoes!”

It’s one world, but separate experiences and realities within it. Life, sadly, is anything but a level playing field, and we must accept that. Beauty and physical appearance may be skin deep, but also carry a powerful clout. I’m still waiting for a Disney feature in which Prince Charming seeks out Sleeping Great Personality rather than Sleeping Beauty… 😸
 
Beezer said:
Being extremely handsome can also be a curse.

I've coasted my whole life on my good looks and demeanor. Men high five me when I stroll down the street...women swoon and fall in love with my every post on the Internet.

It really is a burden to bear. Sometimes I just wish I was born 'okay-looking.'...with a middling personality. But for the life of me, I just can't stop looking and being wonderful! :)
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I must admit, as pink starfish go, you are a ten. I think it's that smile though that charms everyone. That being said, perhaps the waistline might need a little attention (Although I don't really know much about starfish waistlines).
 
It's primal. Nature probably programmed humans that way to find the healthiest mate. The 'beautiful' tend to have few obvious flaws, might be sick/unhealthy but nature wants an indicator or criteria to go on.

In an 'civilized' society brains, skills, experience and MONEY count to those seeking the best mate for themselves. It might not be fair but thousands of years ago it probably worked to a certain extent.
 
It all kind of makes sense though, doesn't it?

Attractive people hold better high-paying jobs...marry other attractive people. Their offspring are good-looking and have money...etc. Each generation just keeps getting better-looking as the cream rises to the top.

Not far off Darwin's analysis.
 

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