--Ray Brady of Gainesville, Florida
Undoubtedly, however, there is a part of the human brain that attaches good looks to good feelings. There are people, like me, who say you can't just judge by looks alone, but the truth of that matter is you still judge looks nonetheless. You cannot tell me that someone is solely annoying because of their voice when you know they have a giant mole with fifty hairs poking out of their nose.
But does this have anything to do with instinct? Is there some connection between good looks and longer life? There are plenty of cultures that seem to think so. For example, there are tribes in Africa who bend a bar over their child's head as soon as it's born to make the forehead elongated, a sign of beauty. But a counter example would be the Egyptians who would only mix royal blood with royal blood (incest) for longer lives, and we all know what incest does for appearance (if you don't, go to Georgia for a bit).
In today's society, beauty is closely associated with fame. It's been proven by numerous people who need not be named that one can lack everything upstairs, but have a "nice bod" and still make it big. Even with this association, not all altered beauty is for fame or money. There are two kinds of altered beauty as I see it.
One of the most well-known kinds of plastic surgery is the fame or better life plastic surgery. This is when one feels all hope is lost in succeeding to the point that they must alter their appearance to get anywhere. Enlarged breasts, fixed noses and cheek lifts are a few examples of these. These are very immoral, in my opinion. It just shows that society has scoffed at you and you have nothing left but to whore yourself back to it before you can be accepted. It's a very sad last resort in this case.
However, there are those who alter their appearance, because they want to look better for themselves. No matter how the world looks at them, they feel they have done themselves a favor. Fixing an over or underbite is an example of one such procedure. Even though you're still doing this procedure for yourself, it's not really immoral, because you're not doing it to improve your status.
What does all this do for society as a whole? Really, truthfully, it all makes a balance. I know it may seem unfair to some people that they can't afford the surgery or they need a surgery or they feel other people don't need these surgeries, but it really does balance things out. There will always be some degree of people being "fixed," people being "fixed" for themselves and people not being "fixed." I don't think it corrupts anything, because not everyone is affected by it.
But should we be so enthralled with outer beauty? No, of course not. Outer beauty is mostly luck of the draw (other than the above cases). Personality, however, is something that can be worked on or maximized. The more a person shows their personality, the more a person shows their real safe, regardless of what they're wearing or what they look like. I truly think the most beautiful people are the people who smile the most and laugh the most. I truly think the ugliest people are the snobby aristocrats who shake their fingers at the lower class. But, as the saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beer holder. Pass me another one, barkeep.
