For a very long time now my thoughts have always turned toward a subject shunned in speech, yet highly pushed in action. The subject is appearance, and how it affects people. To me, I have two factors of superficial standing, one of which is generally not considered as heavy by many, but is very noticeable present nonetheless. The first factor is of course appearance, how one looks and dresses etc. The second is naturally the use and pronunciation of language. Both are very telling things about people, and they both say a lot. The greatest thing they both say together I think is a person's financial and educational status. These things ultimately can be deceiving but generally they are accurate in their telling.
On appearance specifically, it has a variety of impacts on a person, and I think can influence one's life course a tremendous load. If someone is fat, bald, ugly, homely, plain, slim, fit, built, good-looking, highly attractive, or what, their life course will be laid out for them to a great degree by this, naturally there are always exceptions, but I find that as a rule of thumb, this is a good one to live by. So, I am telling obvious facts with this, but more to my point, should these things affect our lives in these ways? Should attractive people be given special privilege just because they are so? Obviously throughout life, it is always to their advantage to be attractive (with little exception), but should it be? Personally, I think to a degree it ought to be that way, attractiveness means good health, and is often (depending on cultural attractive values) a sign of wealth by itself. This produces the fittest among us, and helps our species to survive. This does not mean I feel no compassion for ugly people, but; in my experience (and I shall grant that I live in the fittest state in the union), most people are usually highly attractive especially at my present age (21).
This leads me to a different question, how does one's attractiveness compare to another's, and how does mine specifically stand apart? Would people want to have sex or be in relationships with me, on a superficial only meeting? I am not really sure, I do not know how people think of me, I have always thought of my face as plain, or even slightly attractive, but nothing out of the ordinary. Why is this, what features stand out to people about me as attractive and which as ugly?
As to speech, I shall get to that another time (because it is one of my favourite subjects), but for now, what is attractive to people, and what is not, superficially of course, and why is it so shunned by society, and yet so very promoted too?