Mar 23, 2009

Blessed are the beautiful

Do beautiful people get it all easy in life?

In my 24 years of a somewhat interesting existence, I have observed a few trends that transcend genders, cultures and timezones.

One of them is that really good looking people, I mean drop-dead gorgeous... somehow get it all easier/faster than the rest of us.

They seem to belong to an elevated world of unbelievable, sometimes undeserved, mindboggling beauty.... people who get noticed by bouncers outside popular clubs and can hence skip the line, those who can hail a taxi ten times faster than the rest of us, and those that everyone wants to meet or be.

Those who say that beauty can take you only so far, are they just jealous, not-so-attractive, brainy critics who are trying to justify their own existence? Becos I think beauty is one thing that can take you very far in life. You are always treated like a special creature by the world around you. You walk into a club, a wedding, a family get together or into a school classroom ... the whole world is just mesmerized. And if you happen to be this exotic creatures' friend, be prepared to be ignored royally for a while. People will be shaking hands with you when introduced, but their eyes will be talking to the "creature".

What about interviews? I thought, come on that sounds far-fetched... I am sure interviewers notice that the candidate is attractive but that cannot be a factor of choice. Research proves that beautiful "creatures" can clinch the deal in an interview based on their beauty. It is supposed to be a sub-conscious "halo-effect" that takes over an interviewer's mind. If this person is so attractive, so charming... I'm sure that they are good at their job, good at life, good at everything. If the interviewer had to choose between two candidates who are somewhat similarly qualified, you can be sure that the attractive one is in.

Hmm. What about a social life? Beautiful people have FABULOUS social lives and wait - without trying. Everyone wants to befriend them and that automatically opens doors to conversation. I think this also trickles into their love lives. Generally, the first thing that attracts a person to the opposite sex is looks and if one's got a 100/100 there, then the foundation to a relationship is laid pretty solid. The halo effect can probably apply here as well. A beautiful creature automatically catches your eye without having to try too hard, while the rest of us will be invisible, how ever hard we try.

Also there is the matter of quantity and quality, a beautiful creature will have triple the number of interested parties to choose from so that automatically increases the chances of finding a great partner. You end up choosing the best one for you out of the huge set of options in front of you. If you compare that situation to the rest of us under-privileged (if i may use that term without being prosecuted) creatures, a handful of people would actually be interested in the first look (those who supposedly look deeper lol) , out of which a few, you might create a miniscule connection with .... so you can count your options for a lifepartner on the the fingers of your hand. They say - settle for what you have and thats what most of us end up doing, maybe for the lack of confidence of finding something better suited for us?

Now my brain-spew above is just a collection of possibly prejudiced opinions but maybe some of you may identify with what I am saying. Now, the next question to debate is whether beauty is a sustained formula for success.... does the competitive advantage last?

5 comments:

Paradox Philic said...

Ha ha ha.. I have to say i agree, mostly!

However this silly undying optimism that i have keeps me from discarding the fact that although this happens more often than not, but its definitely not a generic guiding rule for many.

Sue said...

@ paradox : I'd like to believe as well... so I am going to borrow a small little bit of that optimism from you.

John Doe said...

well I used to think so too.

and then i start thinking of the really successful figures.

few of them are 'drop dead gorgeous'.

in fact it is said that an actor cannot be really successful if he is too good looking. even if they are very talented. example: robert redford.

to play the devil's advocate - our looks are signposts of our secret genetic make up. so maybe good looking people have something going for them after all.

Unknown said...

You should watch the documentary on MTV that attempted to deal with this topic. They selected four people, two from each gender and while two were average looking the other two were extremely good looking.

The four were pretending to be lost tourists in Manhattan and guess which two had no difficulties in getting directions, in fact people stopped and asked them if they needed help whereas the other two couldn't get a decent response from passer-bys.

RASHI said...

I read somewhere, to survive you must either look good or talk good, and your great at both.

Way to go curly!