Weird thoughts occur to you as doze on the commuter train on the morning. What would my life have been like had I been good-looking? Would possessing a startling pair of nostrils like Kevin have altered my life path?
Would I have worked less hard at school and just floated about soaking up attention? Would being able to wear clothes without them looking as if they had fallen on me as I ran through a clothes line have given me confidence and led me to different decisions? What does it feel like to look in a mirror and think “mmmm”?
As I officially have the world’s most gorgeous blog readership let me know what it’s like. Rick you can chip in too if you want.
Just kidding big guy :0)
being ugly makes you a better person – attractive people lack the ability to assess their own importance (or rather, lack of)
As to attractive people who aren’t screwed up. they were probably ugly for the majority of their living memory and don’t realise the power of good looks.
Thanks for that, when I saw “I officially have the world’s most gorgeous blog readership” I did think ‘what about me?”
I do think it must have a big impact on your life. Think about the level of attention from the opposite sex during those formative teenage years – and who it’s coming from. I got rather too much from the ‘wouldn’t touch ’em with a barge pole’ section of society. That’s got to have pushed me along the road to Anti-social town population: 1.
There are very few people who do actually think they are attractive. I have a friend who’s a model and she’s really hung up about her looks. She’s very insecure and thinks people think she is stupid, which she’s not. But they treat her as such because she is so gorgeous.
Your askin the wrong girl here. I’ve always wondered the same thing.
But what I have noticed is that all the people who were gorgeous and popular in Highschool are now all “used up” looking. Like they (excuse my expression) “blew their load” of prettiness in High School and had none left for the rest of their life, while the people who were average…..blossomed.
Bro. Moobs,
I too have to address the “world’s most gorgeous blog readership”. I think it is irresponsible of you to exclude me. The ugly people need love too, dammit!
Signed,
Messed up in Michigan
You’re not bad looking though are you?
I think it’s only a small minority of people whose looks genuinely define, or even significantly influence, their lives. At one end of the scale you have the breathtakingly beautiful and at the other you have the truly malformed mingers, the inbreds, the egregiously asymmetical (leaving aside those with medical conditions and the disfigured). These people are the ones who turn your head when they walk by; their atractiveness or lack of it is extreme and I can see how it would shape their life. 95% of people are somewhere in the middle and if they think their lives have been dictated by their looks then they’re deluded. But then, it seems to me that a lot of people are deluded about all sorts of things.
As for “being ugly makes you a better person” – I’ve heard that before, but oddly enough only from people who are, or more often who think they are, ugly mugs…
Looks, schmooks, what you need are SKILLS… girls like SKILLS
My sister and I often used to ponder what it would be like to be ugly…as we were just such fine pieces of ass in high school and continue to blossom into even MORE gorgeous women then we were before.
It’s a tough load to carry my friend…I mean when Matthew McConaughey calls one constantly…almost on a stalking level…and Johnny Depp keeps sending me jewels and proclaiming that Vanessa is just a ruse to hide the love he holds for me and my hot ass…welllll…you can see the difficulty Moobs.
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OKAYYYY…on a serious level. I don’t think I am BEAUTIFUL…but what I most often get is “You are sooo cute.” This has followed me from frickin birth to now…and I.AM.THIRTY.FIVE. One does not want to be “cute” at 35. The word CUTE makes me sick almost…it’s like I should be sucking on a lollipop with pigtails or something (ok…wait…that is like a fantasy for some men, right?)
I have days where I feel SMOKIN’…days I feel like the creature from the black lagoon and days where all the planets are aligned and I feel just right, inside and out. I don’t really define myself by my looks…I think I define myself more by my wit, intelligence and creativity and how I treat others…ya know? Without those…I wouldn’t feel very good about myself…cute or not.
Anyhoo…I agree with what Maniacal said. I have seen some of the “hot” chicks from high school…and let me tell ya…they are not so hot anymore. AND that includes the boys. Our star quaterback is like 200 pounds overweight now and looks like 500 miles of bad road…
I think that if you feel beautiful INSIDE…and are beautiful to others in your actions and words…then beauty just exudes from you. Or like my son said to someone the other day…who was commenting on his playdough and how ugly it was with all the colors mashed together…he said “It may be ugly to you…but not to me.”
And that my friend sums it up…what is one persons fugly…is another persons treasure…
Your commute musings are so much more interesting than mine. I’m usually debating between beef or chicken for dinner.
Off to check out this gorgeous readership you’re talkin’ about…
What Menace said… although admittedly it is hard to have that sense of perspective when you’re fifteen and an ill-placed spot can ruin your ENTIRE LIFE so maybe it does warp your personality a bit…
I’m pleased to see no-one really thinks looks matter. this is precisely why it is impossible to make money from fashion, beauty products, diets amd gyms.
Moobsie
That’s the snag you see. Guys get big points for their brains while us gals well, we only get points for our big uhhh, brains. yea, that’s it.
Heh. I’ll tell you what – I bet that, with the exception of some really shallow and self-centered people, most everybody goes through life feeling that they’re unattractive. At least some days.
Me? That’s been every day of my life, except for like Prom and New Year’s parties and stuff, when I put on the fancy duds.
Being pretty would be nice, but I would rather have people say of me at my funeral “She was a woman of integrity and substance” than “She shore was purty.”
Moobs – I don’t think that looks really make a huge difference to our quality of life.
That they’re able to convince people otherwise is why creators and advertisers of fashion, beauty products, diets amd gyms are paid such fucking huge amounts of money.
Beauty comes from within. Sorry to use a cliche but it’s true. And though I have no idea what you look like I have a feeling that you’re beautiful. Do guys like being called beautiful?? OK, I have a feeling you’re HOT. How ’bout that?
I cannot help you here. A colleague once said to me, “You know, Mary always looks like she just stepped out of Vogue magazine.” I wasn’t sure what to say. “And us? We look like we just stepped out of the clothes hamper.” Well, at least I know for sure there’s no doubt I’m not going to be confused with a Vogue model any time soon.
I’ve always thought of Kevin’s nostril as my retirement home.
I’m still laughing at this, and at Oh, The Joys’ comment.
Looking back over the men I’ve dated, I’d have to say that the most attractive ones tended to be the biggest jerks. But this is only anecdotal. I’m sure there are highly attractive AND kind, honest, funny, and intelligent people out there.
Right?
PS: beauty is subjective anyway.
Moobs…yes…there is money being made from fashion etc…but seriously…for those who give into all that crap and live or die by beauty, fashion etc there are about 3 options that end up occurring:
1. You end up being filmed snorting coke backstage with Pete Doherty
2. You get knocked up by KFed…twice…and watch the world turn against you cuz now you are “fat” and “trashy”
3. You end up getting dumped for a woman who actually does something with her power and beauty and like saves the children of the Earth…whilst you ponder your next famous haircut….
Hence…money may be made…but happiness is not achieved unless you are happy with your INSIDE self! 🙂
Jen
1. You minx – you are trying to divert me into a three page tirade about that smack-pumping tosspot PD. It will not work I refuse to be drawn on the subject of that shit-headed arse-biscuit. I’ll just have to keep my feelings about him to myself.
2. In order to be beautiful on the inside I’m going to have to find somewhere else to keep my bowels.
3. I absolutely agree that you shouldn’t let the size of your nose/arse/manboobs determine your sense of self-worth and largely I don’t. All it means to me is having to live with making horses rear away and tiny children run screaming into a lifetime of therapy. However, looking at the world around me the sentiment seems more aspirational than descriptive. It’s like saying “money isn’t important”. Of course it shouldn’t be but when you don’t have any it twists your life so far out of shape that you can’t think about anything else.
I don’t think people having their lives affected by their looks is all that rare. As you know, someone I love dearly cannot look in a mirror with suffering agonies even though she is the most beautiful person I know.
On the other hand I have a friend who is good looking. Even my mother fancies him. Going out with him to bars involves having women in heels walk painfully across me to get to him. This has ruined him. He never commits to a relationship because deep down he believes correctly that he can find someone else willing to jump into bed with him in the first pub he walks into.
I want the three page tirade about Pete.
Move your bowels over or something…and make room for the beauty within.
Oh…and money…isn’t important. Really…I think. 😉
Your friend…uses that excuse to not commit. It’s a typical man-ploy. We woman have come across it a THOUSAND times. Chances are…by the time he wants to commit…he will have some serious VD from jumping those woman in heels at various bars…and will have lost his chance for true love.
MMMMWWWWAHHHHHH…that’s a big smooch for ya Moobs. Cuz YOUR BEAUTIFUL…YOUR BEAUTIFUL…IT’S TRUE!
i’m going to do what frat guys do and wander around holding signs everywhere i go. i’ll just constantly rate the people who walk by me. lol
I reckon it’s different for boys. If you are even moderately attractive as a girl you will always have men wanting to have sex with you. If you only a moderately attractive man, you will have to work quite hard at developing a personality if you are to get laid on a regular basis. I am happy to be averagely good looking because it’s landed me a lot of jobs I wouldn’t have got had I been plain. But having known people who are really good looking, having people come on to you all the time is just a gigantic pain in the arse, no seriously!
An interesting one, this. There are loads of theories and researcha bout it – which I’m going to ignore, and just tell you about the world as I see it. Everyone makes some kind of judgement based on looks – its programmed into their brains through evolutional imrpinting – we just can’t help it. The difference is, the degree to which it affects our judgement varies from person to person. For some people looks are pretty much everything (and in my experience, men tend to rely on visual stimulus so much more than women – look at the Porn industry!), but most other people looks matter to a lesser extent, at a variety of different levels.
I have never dated a guy based on what he looked like. Never. I’ve only ever dated people I’ve got to know and been friends with – so how stunningly gorgeous they are has mattered so much less than how comfortable they made me feel.
Friends of ours have a fantastic daughter. She is 3 and like a little ball of lightning. She loves to talk and gets breathless in her enthusiasm to get her point across. She will chase me round her house cackling wickedly. She is a wonderful, energetic and unself-conscious child.
She has a genetic disorder that means that neither her hair nor her teeth will ever properly develop. Sometimes when I’m playing with her I feel a sadness creep upon me. I know it can’t be long before she begins to be more conscious of her appearance and to feel different. More specifically, soon she will start school and although children are, of course, little bundles of joy at all times I would be surprised if we could not all name someone we recollect being on the receiving end of unpleasant treatment from peers at school for being “different”.
It’s nt that I don’t think that she has the strength of character to overcome it. She is a little dynamo. It’s just that I wish she didn”t have the unpleasantness coming and I hope today’s kids are more tolerant and less cruel than my on generation.
Jen – first Pete Doherty now James Blunt?!?!
Emma – some of my female colleagues say the same thing: that they know, not to put it too finely, that they could always pull if they wanted to. Most of my male friends see it is as a semi-miraculous event like a passing comet or a rain of frogs. There must be some over-worked men.
DS- what stimulus do women prefer?
Kevin’s Howdy Doody nostrils have me scared…if only because of Nikki and Attila’s comments…
My husband has large nostrils.. in fact… he once stuffed ohhh… i don’t even want to think of what he stuffed up his nose as a ‘party’ trick…
But no one to my knowledge have revealed their battle intimate body scars…
Now, Moobs, I think a great deal of us do not have an envy for you in looks… as we do not have clue as to what you look like… But I certainly can be envious of your bang on comments and/or your amazing blog!
Heee heee heee…love to keep you guessing Moobs! 😉
Great Pends – now I won’t be able to sleep for worrying what your Husb may have lodged in his nose.
If only you could have all been blessed with my nostrils…although, this would’ve been catastrophic to the luggage industry…as there would’ve have been no need for any…getting through securtiy at the airports would’ve been even WORSE though. “Ummm…excuse me sir, what do you have in your nose?” My reply? “What DON’T I have up there? That’s the real question, bucko.”
What can I say? Being hot is hell…appropriately.
OH! I just saw Jessica’s comment (Oh The Joys) and apparently the luggage industry would be JUST FINE!!! APPARENTLY, IT’S RETIREMENT COMMUNITIES THAT WOULD BE HIT HARDEST BY MASSIVE NOSTRILS!!! I SEE!!! WHY NOT CONVENTION CENTERS TOO?? HUH?
i meant by MY MASSIVE NOSTRILS!!! BY MY MASSIVE NOSTRILS!!! DAMN IT!!! AAAHHHH!!!! *snort* Opps…there went the computer monitor.
moobs, thru my sister’s site to yours… what emma has said nails what I think and so, I get to be lazy and not write it all out.
This little girl you are talking about, this is a very touching story and I’m curious, do you already sense HER sadness or is it all yours over what is most likely ahead–it sounds like so far, she is blissfully uninitiated into the world of SEE and BE SEEN… (I hate to say it but no matter what great new levels of tolerance parents might hope to teach, when it comes to the playground, I don’t think children have gotten ‘nicer’ in terms of singling out kids who look different–and I’m writing fiction about this stuff, so I’m seriously pondering and feeling for your friends’ little girl)…
On the one hand, I think it is all too easy to say, “What’s on the inside counts most”… even though it is true in terms of choosing friends and loves to spend a lifetime with. But what about the physical stuff that gets us to look/talk in the first place? I struggled once with a gorgeousssss-on-the-inside man who had severe acne scars on his face… I called friends to find out if I was a bitch/normal/or what for not, in the end, wanting to kiss him and be more than the great friends we were. I bet he is making some lucky woman a terrific mate– a woman “prettier on the insdie” than I was/still am.
great subject
KC – Your post made me laugh so loud that I have woken the blessed P who has spotted that I am reading blogs rather than working on my case-preparation. Your nostrils thus claim their first overseas victim. Nostrilla must be stopped!
Chica – the sadness was all mine. She’d still at the stage that where she gets new shoes she thrilled by how the shoes look rather than how the shoes make her look.
moobsy my darling !! thanks for pointing out the wine was delivered to the house on the 22nd !!
I found 2 of the children and a neighborhood boy upstairs giggling and trying on my underwear and there was only 1 bottle left that was salvageable !
damn my luck at being pre- occupied 🙂
*hides the last bottle out of range of Kevins nose*
Moobs – in response to your earlier question, men are more responsive to visual stimuli, (especially sexually) women, on the whole respond better to touch, and how something feels. We will probably be shutting our eyes when we are enjoying *ahem* something. I’m not saying everyone – just mostly.
So that’s why parading naked about the bedroom saying “look at me love” is not working for me. It also explains why she keeps her eyes tighlty shut when I do.
“What would my life have been like had I been good-looking?”
That’s the funniest thing I’ve come across in awhile! I guess you can ask David Hasselhoff. He might know people.
I am not worthy to speak to the HOFF.
I can honestly say that of the young men I know, the most intelligent ones get the least female attention. I know people with only a handfull of brain cells to rub together who get plenty.
there are also plenty of thick people who get no attention. Girls also get frustrated that it is apparently the air-heads who get all the guys, but that’s because they aren’t noticing the thick girls who are left behind too. It’s about looks not smarts, unfortunately.
They say the average woman would rather have beauty than brains, because the average men can see better than he can think.