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/.
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?