Got back on track with my work out today.
I think I'm going to lay on my floor with some music on before I blog from now on, unless there's been something on my mind all day that I want to get out. I was listening to Lady Gaga today, and "Love Game" and "Poker Face" came on. They're about sex, and I got to thinking about it. What if I could be that girl like Lady Gaga, who was confident about her sexuality and not afraid to flaunt it? Where could I be right now?
And then I got to thinking about beautiful people in general. I tried to watch some of America's Next Top Model season 9 today, and I couldn't watch more than a few minutes of it. And that was the season I started watching the show, and got hooked. Most of the girls there had beauty that outweighed their brains by quite a margin. But they were on TV.
There aren't many reality TV shows that feature intelligent people, men or women. The ones that do are game shows, like Jeopardy and the like. These shows aren't nearly as popular as America's Next Top Model or Jersey Shore. Most of the programming that features intelligent people are fictionalized, like Criminal Minds, Numbers, etc. They may be based on real events or people, but are condensed and fictionalized to appeal to the public.
And even then, these people are not what you would call ugly, even if the people they are based on aren't the most attractive people. When converting a true story to the camera, the best looking actors are made available, even if they aren't the best candidates for the job, in order to pull in more ratings.
So it seems to me that our society places more worth on people who are beautiful than those who are intelligent. We revere celebrities, and barely acknowledge intellectuals. From watching TV, it seems like we are sending the message that beauty is what is needed to advance in this world, and it's actually true. I feel like if I wrote a speech out and had someone who was less attractive than me, they would have fewer listeners than if I were to read it, depending on the setting.
I've had many people decide to talk to me solely based on the way my body looks, something that I haven't been able to choose for myself. And there have been a few people who, when I start talking about something I've researched or something that I'm passionate about, will become disinterested.
We like something that we can look at for an extended period of time, not something we can listen to or make us think. There are times when I wish I could rely on beauty to get me through certain things in life, but I know that I wouldn't be content to sit back and ride that wave. I've somehow landed myself in a situation where my appearance has been valued much higher than my personality, and the novelty has definitely started to wear off.
Our society would prefer to talk to a horrible person who was gorgeous than an intelligent person with a prominent nose. But what happens when the gorgeous people who know how to get their way based on their beauty get positions that they are not qualified for? We don't stop to think about that. Just because someone is beautiful doesn't mean they can do everything.
I imagine beauty fades faster than intelligence.
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