One angry monkey

Since when has someone’s looks determined how talented they are? I mean, last time I checked, you don’t need to look like a goddess to be able to play the piano, perform well in sports, or be a great world leader. But it seems that society is so driven by looks, that talent is being overlooked. For example:

Susan Boyle: This is the woman from the UK who performed on Britain’s got talent, and absolutely blew the judges away with her angelic voice. But what was their perception of her BEFORE she started singing? They all pretty much deemed her to be a “wanna-be” singer because of her looks. They had the stereotype of “only beautiful people have talent” emblazoned into their minds. But when she sang, they were proven wrong. Very wrong. Now the whole world has “Boyle fever” because of her talent. It has even gotten to the stage of a so-called “current affairs” show asking the question “Are we seeing a new era of unattractive singers?”. society foolishly discriminates against people based upon their looks, rather than their talents. Personally, society is losing out as a result.

Anna Kournikova: Remember her? She was the blonde goddess from Russia (the one before Maria Sharapova), who wowed the tennis world with her gorgeous body. But could she play tennis? Well not really. She was never a consistent top 3 performer, and seemed to be prone to injury. She also seemed to spend more time on the cover of magazines, then winning tournaments. But did the public care about her skills? No. Why? Because she was eye candy. She was giving the game of tennis a new world of fans. Pre-pubescent teens maybe, but a new world of fans none the less.

Paris Hilton: Nuff said. All the brains and talent of granite rock. But because she had looks (and a bank balance behind her), people gushed over her. But what did she actually do? What was her contribution to society? No idea…

But who is to blame for all this?

Evolution: All of earth’s creatures are designed to be attracted to the healthier of their species to aid in the reproduction and growth of their species. And most of the time, beauty is a sign of health. But at the same time, beauty will only get you so far. Beauty may get you the job, but it won’t make you successful or even competent at it. Species need strong survivors to preserve their existence. Most of the time, it’s the ugly creatures that last the distance. Take cockroaches. Ugly little buggers, but they will outlast almost anything (except my size 12 boot).

Society: society is obsessed with the “beautiful people” of the world. Why? Because people are so insecure about their looks, that they associate success with beauty. Society has focused on those beautiful people who are successful, and tended to push the ugly successful people to one side. society has elevated the beautiful people of the world to a higher class than those who are not beautiful. But there is no sanity check as to whether the “beautiful people” are actually better than the ugly people. Most of the time they are not. But people have been so blinded by beauty that they cannot see something for what it is.

Media: *shudders*. The media can be likened to the drug dealers of the world. They buy and sell in people’s misery and addictions. When it comes to beauty vs talent, they know that people are so insecure about their looks, and they will do whatever they can to make themselves appear more beautiful to society. But why are people so insecure? Because the media depicts the ugly people of the world as a lower class of people. Freaks who are shunned by society. People who cannot be successful as a result of their looks. They don’t care who you are, or what skills you may have. They have branded you as ugly, and the media, along with society, will treat you as being different until you conform to their way of thinking.

So how do you overcome this?

Very simple. YOU can’t. society as a whole needs to change it’s attitude towards beauty AND talent. Society needs to recognise people for their skills and contributions to society, rather than what they look like. There are thousands of Susan Boyle’s out there, hiding in the background just waiting to be discovered. Society as a whole is losing out while these people are being shunned. Think of where we would be if Albert Einstein had been denied the opportunity to discover the theory of relatively because he was ugly? Imagine where we would be if Da Vinci didn’t paint / create his masterpieces because he was ugly? Imagine where we would be if that Survivor host didn’t get the job?

Just remember, there are more ugly people in the world than beautiful people. We have the majority…