4 ms·

I hope this isn't too controversial, but I'd like to argue that there can be social and economical advantages to the average person being slightly unattractive.

I hope this isn't too controversial, but I'd like to argue that there can be social and economical advantages to the average person being slightly unattractive. First off, there's jealousy. Wikipedia says "Rape and sexual violence have accompanied warfare in virtually every known historical era" [1] With that in mind, you're probably better off if your people are, on average, less attractive then a neighboring country. Also in the modern world, not every woman would want the (sometimes violent) attention that comes with being highly physically attractive. Then there's the overall economy. Everyone knows that advertisements are full of attractive people, because that works to convince normal people to buy stuff. If most relationships were between two people who are both highly physically attractive, they'd probably pay a lot less attention to the people on TV. So for most companies, there's a strong financial incentive to keep the average person less attractive than their ad models. And lastly, your time and energy is very finite. If you could trade a 10% decrease in health for a 90% increase in salary, would you do it? Many competitions and industries are close to being a winner-takes-all system, meaning that a tiny increase in your work performance might have an outsized effect on your reward, because it was the last 0.1% to push you ahead of the competition. So it might be a reasonable decision for the average person to let their health slide a bit and focus on getting a good job first. "It is well known that poorer Americans are more likely to be obese" [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_slavery#Historical_cases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_slavery#Historical_case... [2] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181211103139.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181211103139.h...

BlargMcLarg 6y ago
This post makes a lot of assumptions which aren't necessarily true. In regards to money vs health: this isn't as clear-cut cause and effect. One could just as well claim that having constant financial troubles is likely to cause mental health issues, which in turn drains one's will power and likeliness to stick to a diet and regimen without comfort. In this case, money becomes the barrier to entry rather than the person making the decision to focus on not being poor over being healthy. We see this in the common argument that eating healthy is more expensive, which is too simplified: sure, eating extremely healthy is expensive, but loads of fast food bought my poor people both take up more time and are less healthy than cheaper alternatives. Clearly, there is more going on there. Regarding sexual violence: way too many factors are at play here. Mental health issues. Correlations between attractiveness and wealth, the halo effect, etc. Just like one could argue being above average draws more attention, so too can one argue that being above average gives them power that an average person wouldn't have. Add onto that sexual violence itself doesn't necessitate the victim be above average in attractiveness at all, only that they surpassed the attractiveness floor set by the assaulter. For many assaulters, that floor is very low. Being attractive and healthy isn't rocket science for the far majority of people. But as your second point puts it, there is too much money to be gained in pressuring both adults and kids to form poor habits and profiting off it.
jfengel 6y ago
Rape has absolutely nothing to do with attractiveness. Talk to any woman and ask if she isn't worried about sexual assault. Pick any woman you consider unattractive, and see if she thinks she's even the slightest bit less at risk than her most attractive friend. Rape is used in warfare as a method of dominance. It demoralizes the population, causes enormous numbers of pregnancies to be dealt with, and creates fear. It's terrorism. No woman is safe from it. (Nor, it should be noted, are men, though that's less common and much less discussed.) Rape is a crime that keeps all women scared. They never know if it will be them, tonight. They know it has nothing to do with them as human beings, only that they carry female genitals and some men will use force to get at that. Nothing else about them matters, certainly not their faces. This is a thing that every single woman will tell you.

BlargMcLarg 6y ago

This post makes a lot of assumptions which aren't necessarily true. In regards to money vs health: this isn't as clear-cut cause and effect. One could just as well claim that having constant financial troubles is likely to cause mental health issues, which in turn drains one's will power and likeliness to stick to a diet and regimen without comfort. In this case, money becomes the barrier to entry rather than the person making the decision to focus on not being poor over being healthy. We see this in the common argument that eating healthy is more expensive, which is too simplified: sure, eating extremely healthy is expensive, but loads of fast food bought my poor people both take up more time and are less healthy than cheaper alternatives. Clearly, there is more going on there. Regarding sexual violence: way too many factors are at play here. Mental health issues. Correlations between attractiveness and wealth, the halo effect, etc. Just like one could argue being above average draws more attention, so too can one argue that being above average gives them power that an average person wouldn't have. Add onto that sexual violence itself doesn't necessitate the victim be above average in attractiveness at all, only that they surpassed the attractiveness floor set by the assaulter. For many assaulters, that floor is very low. Being attractive and healthy isn't rocket science for the far majority of people. But as your second point puts it, there is too much money to be gained in pressuring both adults and kids to form poor habits and profiting off it.

jfengel 6y ago

Rape has absolutely nothing to do with attractiveness. Talk to any woman and ask if she isn't worried about sexual assault. Pick any woman you consider unattractive, and see if she thinks she's even the slightest bit less at risk than her most attractive friend. Rape is used in warfare as a method of dominance. It demoralizes the population, causes enormous numbers of pregnancies to be dealt with, and creates fear. It's terrorism. No woman is safe from it. (Nor, it should be noted, are men, though that's less common and much less discussed.) Rape is a crime that keeps all women scared. They never know if it will be them, tonight. They know it has nothing to do with them as human beings, only that they carry female genitals and some men will use force to get at that. Nothing else about them matters, certainly not their faces. This is a thing that every single woman will tell you.