In this country, we as Americans have developed a strong a tragic obsession with beauty. From the endless advertisements and media feeding us with an unattainable standard of beauty, we have become desensitized to what is truly beautiful; corrupting our perceptions, ideas, and even ourselves to define what is “perfect”. The whole concept of beauty has been corrupted by the hunger for money by people selling dreams and false hopes, and rattling our confidence only to capitalize on our low self-esteems that they have created…judgments like this lead girls to conform out of pressure to the unrealistic goal of perfection…goes to show how shallow and superficial our people, especially men have become overtime, but the men are not to blame in total. If anything blame the media, because it is them who are shaping our minds as to what beauty is and what beauty should be. The media is constantly imbedding this unrealistic version of a woman in our men’s heads until it influences their perceptions completely. Even the already beautiful models and actresses that are constantly photographed have their own images altered to the standard of perfection
The Beauty Advantage: How Looks Affect Your Work, Your Career, Your Life(source)
Handsome men earn, on average, 5 percent more than their less-attractive counterparts (good-looking women earn 4 percent more); pretty people get more attention from teachers, bosses, and mentors; even babies stare longer at good-looking faces (and we stare longer at good-looking babies).
Consider the following: over his career, a good-looking man will make some $250,000 more than his least-attractive counterpart, according to economist Daniel Hamermesh; 13 percent of women, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (and 10 percent of men, according to a new NEWSWEEK survey), say they’d consider cosmetic surgery if it made them more competitive at work. Both points are disturbing, certainly. But in the current economy, when employers...