The Beautiful Society

Is anyone else sick of Anna Nicole Smith and Britney Spears? I am. Our society is becoming overrun by stars who survive on looks despite dubious values. I don’t believe that I am a role model for a true man of character, but I feel that our perspective has become skewed by an overemphasis on fashion and television channels devoted to the rich and famous such as E! A prime example is Anna Nicole Smith. The media has been in a frenzy over sudden death and her child. I may not know all the details because I have not paid attention to all the news and hype, but I personally view the entire build-up by the media as extremely excessive. The countless news articles have piled up for weeks, sadly taking precedence over news that concerns the general population. I personally have become sick of hearing about her. And often wondered what made her so special other than the fact she was power hungry when she married for money. There are numerous examples of when brawn and beauty rule. Take a look at the my yahoo page. Fashion and Pop culture news are listed above both business and health. I believe it is this over-emphasis that has caused our society to focus on people that are more aesthetically pleasing than those who are pleasing to talk to. I admit that I enjoy “eye-candy”, but I make an effort to still see a person’s personality, whether it be good or bad.

This rant led me to some questions, such as are people considered to be beautiful more successful? Some researchers advocate that there is a direct correlation between beauty and brains. I admit that I was a bit surprised by the results. I already knew that beautiful people were more likely to succeed in society, but I had thought that this was solely due to appearance rather than intelligence.

“Their claim, which amounts to a Grand Unification Theory of Beauty and Brains, flows from four assumptions that guided them as they examined data collected in dozens of scientific studies conducted over the past three decades around the world, which means their findings apply more or less universally. (Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but researchers say that there is remarkable agreement in many cultures about what beholders find appealing.)

The first two assumptions posit that intelligence and beauty are inheritable. Those are genetic "gimmes" -- there's lots of data showing that the kids of smart people are likely to be smart, just as the offspring of attractive people tend to be lookers, too.

Then Kanazawa and Kovar tackle the key assumption -- that beautiful women are more likely to marry men with higher status. Again, that seems obvious, but it's also empirically true. One longitudinal study of people in Oakland, Calif. , found that attractiveness among women was the "strongest determinant of their husband's occupational status." A more recent national study in the United States also found that women's physical attractiveness "has a significantly positive effect on their household income, although it has no effect on their own income." Another U.S. study found that prettier women marry men who have significantly more education, another marker for higher status, Kanazawa and Kovar reported.”

Despite these findings, I still firmly believe that our society is dominated by looks rather than personality in most cases, and hope that people see a person’s true self.