Sunday, April 20, 2008

Beauty and the Geek?!

medias.ados.fr/.../jpg/beauty-and-the-geek2.jpg

Okay, do you guys remember about Beauty and the Beast Walt Disney story? The story is about a pretty girl who falling in love with an ugly man (actually he is a handsome prince, but because he is very arrogant, he became a beast). I think in the real world, it is very rare that a good looking girl can falling in love with a boy who consider not attractive. What I mean is a real true love, not only because of something else (such as money). Of course it really depends on the person itself, but if it’s happened to you, do you want to marry someone who most people see him/her unattractive?
adisneyworld.disney.go.com/.../beauty_beast.jpg

Sometimes we have a schema about someone which we feel attractive. This schema (mental structure that represents some aspect of the world) is influenced our way of thinking to choose our “best” partner. This schema also can create a stereotype about other people appearance. A stereotype is a simplified and/or standardized conception or image with specific meaning, often held in common by people, it can be an opinion, or image, based on the assumption that there are attributes that members of the other group hold in common. For example, some people think that a good looking woman is a person who has skinny body, tall, long hair, etc. Or for guys, he must have muscle, tall, nice hairstyle and have a typical “fitness man” body. This schema and stereotype about people who consider as attractive can be influenced by media also. Nowadays media shown a lot of model who have “good looking” criteria and this also can construct our mind about people who consider attractive.

I remembered a story in a radio, it’s about a girl who is very shy because of her looks, she feels that she is unattractive therefore she decided to find online friends. Once, she has online friend (a boy) and after a while they decided to meet each other. She told the boy that maybe she is not a good looking girl, and she hopes after they meet they still can be friends. But as she expected, after meeting with the guy, he never contact the girl again. The girl was very disappointed, and wondering "do all boys like that? Are they only judging someone by her appearance?" There is a proverb that says “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, I agree with that. Sometimes what we see is not always true. For example people who dress very simple doesn’t mean that he/she is poor, maybe he/she is a millionaire who don’t want to “show off" that they are rich, we never know.

Our schema sometimes misleads us to judge and stereotype people. But beside of thinking about someone’s appearance, do we ever think about what is inner beauty? There is a TV show call “Beauty and the Geek”, it’s about attractive person VS unattractive person, usually they have a group of girls which is beautiful (usually a model) and a group of guys which is consider unattractive (usually a bookworm in a school). The goal is to be a couple that can get along and match with each other. This TV shows can be an example that “Geek” people, who consider unattractive, have ability or something special in him. So, once again, it’s not about the way they look, it’s about inner beauty. Beauty is not only about face or body; it’s more about what is in inside, it’s more about personality and not based on appearance. Every person is unique; there is no good or bad looking. I believe that everyone is special, regardless of their looks. So can we try to not judge people based on their appearance?

5 comments:

Hannah said...

I like what you said about 'there is no good or bad looking' though people can have their opinions (and some voice them out alot louder than others) there is no universal good or bad looking, since when has the whole world ever agreed on one thing, on any thing? Even with shows like Beauty and the Geek, where the very plastic well-made up looking girls are considered oh so beautiful and the 'nerds' and 'geeks' are considered unattractive; some people don't find that plastic doll look attractive in women and would find those contestants unattractive as well as alot of girls liking the cute bookworm types; who ever said they were universally unattractive? You raised a really good point about inner beauty here Fran =]

Julia said...

i agree that we shouldn;t judge other people by the way they look. when it comes to finding a mate, i think looks are very subjective. i know that for me if someone has a great personality i will find them attractive and want to be friends. i don't think it's something you can force it comes naturally. also i think for every person out there, there will be others who find that personality, thus their looks beautiful. even people that we might not find nice or attractive there will always be someone else who does. nice blog :-)

Pooja said...

I actually watch this show, Beauty and the Geek. And I totally agree with you guys, the girls on there are really barbie dollish and just so damn unrealistic. The good thing is by the end MOST of the "beauties" realize that their stereotypes of the geeks were wrong and that they are really nice ppl (sometimes the nicest ppl), though i wonder how many of them carry on this perception outside of the show, cause thats where it really matters, in the real world.

social_issues said...

There is a noticable gender stereotype similarity in cartoons where the prince, an ideal man is rich and handsome. The princess, an ideal woman is kind, gentle and beautiful.

Unknown said...

Base on some social norm judgements of attraction, normally males/females physical attraction is very important for them. People all like good things including good body images, nice looking, fashion, good in all and all.

But that may analysised from surface, moreover, a way of talking, personality, working responsibilty, intelligence(may not included), humor, gentleman,

So which aspect is more important or which one come out first? Surely we all have different attitudes about it.

Well, I accept the second one, but I do not reject the physical attractiviness. hahaaa -_-!