Pretty Ugly: Is It Possible To Be Too Good Looking?
3 March 2008, 5:30 PM. By Daniel Mauser
This short film features a smattering of Pretty People (P.P.’s) discussing some of the positive and negative aspects of being so gosh darn beautiful. Among the perks: Free stuff, compliments, better treatment, jobs as bloggers. The not so perky, kind of saggy and misshapen aspects? P.P.’s find themselves often labeled as dumb or dull, lack friends of the opposite sex, and complain of being seen as sexual objects by men.
Now, no one has ever taken a video of us smiling into a Vaseline-smeared camera lens with our head at a provocative tilt (sober), so we’re not sure we’re qualified to offer our opinion, but. We’re just never going to be able to find a way to empathize with people who find their lives are made slightly more inconvenient because they are attractive, in much the same way as we’re not going to be in any hurry to comfort people who are “too smart”, “too rich”, “too nice” or “too funny.” The benefits you reap by being heralded as an ideal by society are going to far outweigh the setbacks, especially since physical beauty is such a subjective construct to begin with.
We also take issue with the filmmakers’ insistence on cementing gender roles and denying that women could ever be anything other than the object of a gaze. While some men were included in the short, we never did not get to hear as much from them. Indeed, the only complaint one man had is that girls’ boyfriends were jealous of the attention he received. So, in the end, the camera that’s presenting us with an intimate look at what it feels like to be pretty is overwhelmingly male, which reinforces the idea that women are meant to be looked at and men are meant to look, noble intentions and revelations aside.
What do you P.P.’s think? Do people consider you attractive? Do you consider yourself good looking? Have you ever experienced any perks or downfalls for being so jaw-droppingly, head-tiltingly hot? Do share. And we’ll half-heartedly pretend to do something more than study the sensual curve of your mouth as you talk.
(5) 
Post Your Comment
Did you know you can now share a link, image or video?
Click to submit your own notas.
Yeah Im pretty damn hot, but I reserve my vocalization of this opinion for anonymous forums such as this, as I want to save myself the humilliating opinion of the unfortunate person on the receiving end of my “I’m too sexy for this city” rant. That way I don’t have to hear the “Uh no you’re not’you cunt” that Im currently thinking about the twats on this mini docu-drama. In all seriousness, this people are at most, attractive enough and overtly secure. Also there’s a type of woman who always happens to be just cute, but somehow in her mind she is Paulina Porizkova circa 1984. Anyway, the secret to be beautiful is to live in a city where people in average are below you. The folk in the doc living in West Virginia? Hooooottt… them living in Miami Beach? Nooooottt.
I’m one of those aiight looking dudes with the personallity that lands hot chicks. Hot chicks appreciate the attention but get tired of being put on a petistol. I empathize with thise hot chicks who can’t get any peace from the dogface girls. Judging someone based on looks is lame, even when it’s in their favor.
So here’s the problem: because of the emphasis our culture puts on exclusively visual media (magazines, movies, models) we’ve essentially decontextualized beauty as a culture. In person, what makes someone attractive or beautiful is a combination of things: their bone structure and proportions, sure, but more importantly (and I don’t mean this in a “hey everybody let’s feel good” way) charisma: how they move, how they act, how they speak, how they interact with the people around them. Anyone who’s seen a model or actress in person and been surprised by what looks perfect(ly normal) on camera looking bizarre and emaciated in person can attest to this disconnect. Because of the stillness aka decontextualization of the very human charisma aspect in photos, movies (in which actresses play out roles which are not their personalities) etc, we have visually divorced what we see as beautiful in real life (aka when she’s standing in front of us) from what we consider to be “ideal” or objectively beautiful (aka the archetype which we have constructed through media). The reason people watching this film may see some of these women and think, “hey she’s not so stunning” while they in their own lives have had constant attention has to do with this separation of the in-person impact of a woman and her on-screen impact.
hahahha- ‘petistol’!
I bet ‘they’ can’t see past your dashing good looks and discover that you’re much more intellectialer than they thunk.
Aw, the pressures of being ‘really really really good-looking’..I feel for you buttface, I really do.
I think calaverita has really nailed it here. It might be the sole reason the entire “not incredibly attractive” population gets any. If you can accept the fact that everyone has the same general standards for what is physically attractive (varies but can generally be accepted as true), then you come to the conclusion that the average population is settling for the inferior looking people theyre surrounded by…at first. If you persist with this train of thought, you realize that its unlikely that so many people would settle for less than what they should want, mainly becuase people dont like to associate romantically with people they dont find attractive. Therefore, you question the collective motive. It’s equally unlikely that everyone puts aside their partners’ less than grade A appearances for their sparkling personalities (our culture has turned us into superficial bloodhounds who judge FAR before we know). So, there must be another factor, something that people can find attractive within each other that is not appearance or else initial attraction (love at first sight) would be too rare to mention. It must be charisma, the only other thing that can create a powerful attraction in a relatively small period of time, and it gives all of us moderately good looking to ugly people a solid foundation for hope. To be fair, this is all up to interpretation. I like the idea, because it explains what I observe in the world (everyone isn’t gorgeous, yet romanticism exists in great abundance) , not because it is an admittedly comforting idea. You can make your own decision. :)