As a society, we have chalked up prettiness to be a big defining factor of a person’s value. While one may believe themselves above judging a person for their looks, it is actually quite common to do so without even realizing the harm. Beauty standards have been hard wired into our brains so that we constantly measure others on how pretty they are. Consequently, this leads to many scenarios where we bring others down solely based on their looks. For example, on several social media platforms, people have posted stories where their friends or significant others betray them. Oftentimes the comment section will boost the morale of the person posting the story by bringing down the certain person who betrayed them. However, if the betrayer is someone who is not fit to the common beauty standards, the comments bring them down by trashing their appearance instead of criticizing the personality.
Why does this matter? If whoever everyone is insulting is a bad person, why should it matter? Don’t they deserve the insults? Criticism is valid as long as it makes sense to the subject. Insulting someone appearance wise usually is not relevant to the subject matter. It’s like forgetting to do your homework and the next day the teacher insults you about your face instead of chiding you about your carelessness. If you feel like criticizing a certain person’s actions is warranted, then simply stick to disapproving their actions. There is no need to bring appearances into the situation. Having prettiness (of lack of) as the default insult also sends the wrong idea to the other social media users who are reading the comments. There might be many impressionable young minds who have traits similar to the person everybody is bashing. It could be hurtful to read those comments. It might change their perception of themselves after seeing so many others view certain facial features as undesirable. Appearance being the default insult further reinforces the misconception of how beauty is more important than what’s inside. By focusing on appearances in scenarios where it is not relevant, it inaccurately teaches that beauty is more important than personality.
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July 2021
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