Fairy Tales
We always complain from the superficiality of people (at least I do). A lot of people now are so obsessed by looks, to the extent that it overshadows the importance of the beauty within.
It has gotten to a point where a lot of teenage girls want to have plastic surgery to look perfect or like someone they like!
So, is being superficial a bad thing?
Well, we all admire beauty and esthetics, what makes us superficial is if that is our main concern.
It can be bad I think, because it can make someone of a good heart and morals of less value than someone who may be more beautiful in appearance but is cruel, mean or worse.
The difference between us and animals is that we have a brain, morals and emotions, which can change the way we perceive something/someone.
For ex., you might meet someone of modest beauty but with a beautiful personality that we feel by time that they are more beautiful. (vice versa is also true)
So why are we so superficial?
MEDIA BRAINWASH
Media and movies have brain washed us into thinking that a certain look is beautiful. Everyone wants to be that look.
What happened to beauty is within the eye of the beholder?
This brainwash has roots going back to our childhood.
Look at some of the fairytales that we have been brought up to….
Sleeping beauty: she was asleep, he knows nothing about her except her looks!! And he is in love?? How superficial is that.?
Same goes for snow white, Cinderella and many others.
Also the man, he has to be prince charming. Handsome, rich and on a white horse.
Even beauty and the beast, and the frog and the princess, they had to be transformed to handsome princes for a truly happy ending!!!
How many people actually fit that?
People spend years of their life looking for their beautiful princess/ prince charming, till they sober up (sometimes the hard way) to that this might not be what they really want.
I saw Shrek I and II and I really liked the idea. It shows they actually chose to be ogres rather than being beautiful in appearance.!!!
The movie actually inspired some of this post. The fairy Godmother is the evil one in the movie who is trying to push the superficial brainwash for greedy purposes.
Btw, if u haven’t seen it u should. It is not just for kids, honest.
There is also a good movie I saw “shallow Hal” and “the truth about cats and dogs” that address this issue.
Thank God the brain wash might be a bit less , at least for our children.
We always complain from the superficiality of people (at least I do). A lot of people now are so obsessed by looks, to the extent that it overshadows the importance of the beauty within.
It has gotten to a point where a lot of teenage girls want to have plastic surgery to look perfect or like someone they like!
So, is being superficial a bad thing?
Well, we all admire beauty and esthetics, what makes us superficial is if that is our main concern.
It can be bad I think, because it can make someone of a good heart and morals of less value than someone who may be more beautiful in appearance but is cruel, mean or worse.
The difference between us and animals is that we have a brain, morals and emotions, which can change the way we perceive something/someone.
For ex., you might meet someone of modest beauty but with a beautiful personality that we feel by time that they are more beautiful. (vice versa is also true)
So why are we so superficial?
MEDIA BRAINWASH
Media and movies have brain washed us into thinking that a certain look is beautiful. Everyone wants to be that look.
What happened to beauty is within the eye of the beholder?
This brainwash has roots going back to our childhood.
Look at some of the fairytales that we have been brought up to….
Sleeping beauty: she was asleep, he knows nothing about her except her looks!! And he is in love?? How superficial is that.?
Same goes for snow white, Cinderella and many others.
Also the man, he has to be prince charming. Handsome, rich and on a white horse.
Even beauty and the beast, and the frog and the princess, they had to be transformed to handsome princes for a truly happy ending!!!
How many people actually fit that?
People spend years of their life looking for their beautiful princess/ prince charming, till they sober up (sometimes the hard way) to that this might not be what they really want.
I saw Shrek I and II and I really liked the idea. It shows they actually chose to be ogres rather than being beautiful in appearance.!!!
The movie actually inspired some of this post. The fairy Godmother is the evil one in the movie who is trying to push the superficial brainwash for greedy purposes.
Btw, if u haven’t seen it u should. It is not just for kids, honest.
There is also a good movie I saw “shallow Hal” and “the truth about cats and dogs” that address this issue.
Thank God the brain wash might be a bit less , at least for our children.
posted by doshar @ 6/18/2005 02:27:00 PM
4 Comments:
At 6/19/2005 1:19 AM,
haal said…
Very interesting post actually. I agree. We step by step are losing our real strenght, that lies in our deep beauty, to be replaced by fake ones. I love your examples. Very simple yet connecting. Thanks
At 6/19/2005 12:19 PM,
Anonymous said…
yes i like the post too but actually we need some strngth to be like those in shrek , i mean that some of us dont only care for the looks but they take it as an outer appearance for them and they feel goodthemsleves infront of people when their partners look pretty ,m even girls unfortunately!
but the truth is that sometimes when you get this, you dont find yet yourself happy althought you thought before that this could be one of your ways in happiness, but you are still not happy
you find out then that you need the inner beauty in the personality that makes your heart full of joy and happy not just an outer appearnace for me and for the social outlook.
At 6/19/2005 3:57 PM,
Dalulla said…
Unfortunately the superficial aspects in our lives are growing more and more..
I think that ugly is not acceptable by most people when they themselves are at least of average looks, but what can we say..it is human nature.. yet they tend to still find partners in life at some point..Fate.. Allah is merciful!! Some people are not good looking at all, but Sub7an Allah have beautiful characters..
Being interested only in the superficial aspect of a human is way too shallow.. It happens amongst men and women in excess in many socities.. some people are too into the looks rather than the more imortant aspect of a human and that is the character (heart and mind) and what that character can offer..
Sperficail versus Traits... It is a difficult equation.. Beauty of the self, reflects beauty on the outter crust i always believe.. Besides, the eye gets used to what it sees, but it is the character traits that really count on the long run..
However, how many people give enough time to dwell into the others characters??? That is the question..
At 6/20/2005 12:28 PM,
Alina said…
Well, I have to contradict you, but just a little - The Beauty and the Beast story - the idea is that she came to love the beast regardless of how he looked, his transformation was a mere outside projection of how his soul looked like after meeting her.
Other than that, I would like to complete your post by drawing to your (all of you) attention the increasing number of anorexic teenagers who admit they stopped eating because of skinny women they say in women's magazines. This has happened to a friend of a colleague of mine and that girl had to fight this illness for years.
Everywhere you look, physical beauty is emphasized. But there is a new trend, like Dove commercials, using normal women to promote something. If it's an anti-cellulite product they use chubby women who have used it and are really cellulite-free. But it will take a while until this trend will take over!
I myself complain once a day that I am fat. I don't think it is a problem, but it's really easier to blame stuff on my looks (my flaws are mostly imaginary of course) than to accept that men like I need are pretty rare and if they are not married, engaged or gay, they might be living on a different continent...or planet...So, as I know I cannot change the fact that I demand a lot from a man, I focus on something I might change, like looks. But I really don't get why you'd get your nose fixed when you can just cut your hair or change its color or buy a sexy outfit to feel better.
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