Gosh, has it been 10 days since Christmas already?! I’ve been tonnes busy lately, and am dearly sorry for the lack of updates. However, to make up for it, I’m going to do a special giveaway to celebrate my birthday.
Leave a comment below to stand a chance to win a super special ultra fantabulous extremely mysterious gift from me. It might be a box of junk, or pink socks, or a copy of the Eidos Collector’s Pack, Razer peripherals or a Body Shop gift card. It could also be something as bizarre as invading a neighboring country and imposing my own ideology even if they don’t want it.
Okay, that last sentence made no sense… In any case, don’t forget to list your email so I know how to contact you! Only valid on the 4th of January 2009 starting 00:01 till 23:58.
Okay, so I was talking to a friend about how beauty-centric our society still is even after all these years. You’d think that in 2009, we’d be a lot more forward-thinking, mature and less superficial about the issue but really, at the end of the day, we are still the homo sapiens (sans sapiens) that we are, elevating beauty above all (even the great Greek philosophers equated beauty with goodness, too, but that’s another story).
Don’t get me wrong, beauty is a good thing and human beings have been predisposed to prioritize beauty because it is a genetic marker for health – and healthy mates carry healthy genes which makes for the production of healthy babies who will in turn carry on those genes. Our subconscious has evolved to help us identify these signs which our conscious mind sees and labels as “beauty”. A good height, slim (toned, but not skinny) build, smooth skin, healthy teeth – these are what most people prefer in a partner because they possess genes that are most likely to ensure the continuation of succession. And whether we choose to reproduce or not, our idea of what is beautiful or attractive is hardwired into that unconscious part of our brain.
Click here for wikipedia’s entry on the definition of beauty (or at least, physical attractiveness). And yes, there are male as well as female definitions.
But at the heart of the issue, beautiful people are not just more likely to attract more mates… they also earn more. On average, 12% more. In an article from The Independent, “the main reason for the apparent victory of the lookers is that they are seen as more helpful and co-operative” while the rest of the Regular Joes/Joannas take in 7% less than them and Category 3 ends up 5% less than the moderately attractive. Okay, statistics aside, it was surprising to learn that good looking people are consistently perceived more positively personality-wise. I mean, we don’t want to mate with all these co-workers, we just want them to pull their weight in the workplace… so do looks really matter? Well, apparently it does – and it pays off, too. Read the rest of this entry