Sunday, April 19, 2009

Judging a book by its cover ....!!!

Are first impressions everything in this hectic world? Should you be concerned about your appearance? Does the way you project yourself physically affect how others perceive you? Unfortunately, the answer to all these questions is yes.
We live in a world in which we are constantly judged by our appearance despite the ideal "judgment by merit."
People we pass by in a crowded city will size us up and immediately form an idea in their head of whom they think we are in less than two seconds; often times, this idea is completely wrong, as many people judge solely on a few factors of a person's appearance.
Appearances matter, even though, in many cases it does little to reveal the qualities or character of the person beneath the exterior, there are several cases in which it is blatantly wrong to be judged by your appearance, yet most people probably do it every single day. Why?

There was a time when people walked around, unhinged from what is now known as modern day society, democracy, and personal being. A time when women and men did not spend countless hours using technological devices, things they are unable to live without in today's time. There was no such creation as make-up, or hair dye, or high heels; nor were there cellular phones, or computers. What did the men and women do hundreds of millions of years ago without all of this useless junk? It would seem that they were happier, but I only assume this by the way people live today, depressed and stressed out, due to the fact that they are put under pressure from society to try to fit in and be the most beautiful person they can be. Image has always been a love/hate relationship, especially amongst women. If they don't possess the right sized breast, or if their hair is too curly or they are too short; where does the self-wallowing pity end?
I choose not to live by these standards; that being I rarely give a second look at myself in the mirror each morning. I find that it pays to be happier with yourself than to care what the media says, and I believe that if more people decided to live with the same outlook that I do, then maybe we'd need less products in our bathroom cabinets, and we would have more books stacked on our empty bookshelves. People in today's society need to first and foremost learn to understand themselves. With how the world is in complete and utter chaos we might be able to give up our aesthetic propaganda and gain knowledge instead. If more people choose to lead a better lifestyle they can live a better life. As I stated in the beginning, it was just recently that people started caring for their appearance instead of their well-being. If everyone decided to care only about their looks, wouldn't this affect our community as well as the whole world? If people stopped reading and writing books, would any knowledge be gained? I suppose if I have the right lipstick color it doesn't matter about where I go in life. But that brings about another point. People are biased when it comes to how an individual looks. If a man with green hair and piercings all over his face applied for a job, and his competition was a clean-cut Wall Street type, who do you think would get the job? If one stops to think about how aesthetics have destroyed our youth, our common knowledge and our personalities, someone might try to make a change. I realized that I cannot live forever, so why try to cover up my imperfections? Who are we trying to impress?

Think of it this way: Human beings are afraid of the unknown. If a person thinks he or she knows who you are, even if that thought is completely wrong, then he or she will feel more secure for the moment.

Always remember ---
"When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself."

No comments:

Post a Comment