The Value of Pretty

Something someone said on Facebook caught my attention a few days ago. One of my social network peers was apparently offended by something someone on his network said about him, along the lines of "being nothing but just fair skinned".

To defend himself, my peer insisted on being "pretty" no matter what shade of skin he wears. It went on to raise other points, most of them arguing about his relative beauty against others. It was a superficial, petty quarrel that piqued my interest for its anthropological implications.

First: why is there a need to defend, and argue for, someone's beauty? Regardless if it's yours, or of someone you care about. An attack on one's physical attractiveness deserves no reply by my books. It's a ridiculous debate to determine who is beautiful and who is not because of a multitude of reasons, some of the ones I can throw from the top of my head are:

- Beauty is a social construct. What is "beautiful" for us "now" is a matter of what society grew to agree on as beautiful. What society agrees on is temporary, like territorial lines, and most moral systems. This means that you are "beautiful" only because most people "say" so TODAY, and RIGHT HERE. That doesn't make you "beautiful" THEN or FOR ETERNITY, and even for EVERYWHERE.

- Being pretty is a matter of genetic lottery. Bragging about your height, or your cheekbones, or your flawless skin, or your full lips is like being proud your father won a raffle draw. You absolutely HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. You are just a product of two sets of genes mixing together in your mother's womb, and coming out right for a particular here and now* (see argument above).


Also, what perplexed me with their online debacle is the issue it implies: What is the value of beauty?

Indeed, what is "being pretty" for?

I'm really baffled by the amount of money we throw to people who stood above the median height of the population, and the opportunities that we offer to people simply because they look foreign enough to be "uncommon".

"Being pretty" is pretty useless. You cannot create anything out of your cuteness. It is not creative, it is not productive, it is not useful to be pretty, or cute. You will achieve nothing out of your cuteness.

Even if you win the argument, and has indeed defended the honor of your physical attractiveness, in the end, you fought for something temporary and useless.

You cannot achieve any of your goals by looking pretty; unless you goal is to have a large set of options for mating purposes.

You do not become a better person just because you look good. What you DO is what makes you a good person.

You do not earn people's respect because you look hot. How you treat others is what will.

When you define yourself by how you look, you put limitations on yourself because you ignore what it is you CAN DO. By focusing on your physical attributes, you shortchange your potential. You are wasting your life by defining your life with your looks.

But then again, why should you care about what I think? You look good, and that's all that matters.