Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Truth About Beauty
Psychology Today ^ | November 1, 2010 | Amy Alkon

Posted on 12/12/2010 6:19:47 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-50 next last

1 posted on 12/12/2010 6:19:53 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I agree with this to a point, and that is for initial attraction.

But if a man gets a chance to know a woman, at least sometimes, she “grows” on him.

Also, beauty is still subjective. Witness the article’s admission that some cultures like fat and some like thin. Obviously that is not “hard wired.”

I have seen some women I think are genuinely ugly (NO offense intended, but she can pout all the way to the bank) like Sarah Jessica Parker. If I looked like that I’d feel depressed. Yet she is a famous and apparently gorgeous movie star.

I have known some “Sarah Jessica Parkers” in real life who are apparently loved by good looking men with decent jobs.

Also I have known a handful of very heavy women who have husbands who are much better looking. And I’m not talking about women who got fat after the wedding but who were seriously fat to begin with.


2 posted on 12/12/2010 6:25:38 PM PST by Persevero (5 days until the lame duck Congress goes home.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I was just a skinny lad
Never knew no good from bad
But I knew love before I left my nursery, huh
Left alone with big fat fanny
She was such a naughty nanny
Heap big woman you made a bad boy out of me


3 posted on 12/12/2010 6:26:03 PM PST by Artemis Webb (What, if not a bagel and coffee, confirms the existence of a just and loving God?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Lyrics to Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor Doctor)

A pretty face don't make no pretty heart
I learned that, buddy, from the start

4 posted on 12/12/2010 6:29:08 PM PST by MamaDearest
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Amy Alkon


5 posted on 12/12/2010 6:30:49 PM PST by libh8er
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Persevero

Interesting article with many good points.

Except about French women.


6 posted on 12/12/2010 6:36:55 PM PST by CaptainK (...please make it stop. Shake a can of pennies at it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

In every situation I have been in ,with time and familiarity, the initially beautiful and ugly girls always moderate in their appeal.


7 posted on 12/12/2010 6:38:59 PM PST by rsobin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Persevero

True—making a man feel deeply appreciated is a powerful aphrodisiac and can make a very plain woman the subject of a good man’s love. But looking as though you care how attractive you are, staying in shape, making an effort, corresponding to traditional female ideas of beauty, and appearing happy and healthy will give a woman a bigger pool of good men to choose from. It’s not realistic to expect a man to have ESP and see past the ratty hair and rolls of fat an unfamiliar woman is displaying and recognize the fine character beneath. At least look like you’re in the market, for goodness’ sake.


8 posted on 12/12/2010 6:44:06 PM PST by ottbmare (off-the-track Thoroughbred mare)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Most women choose men, at least in part, based on their healthy appearance and ability to provide for their mate. Likewise, a man chooses a woman, at least in part, based on their healthy appearance and ability to bear children.

We’re hardwired to notice appearance, as are all sorts of species. It’s perfectly natural, although it can seem cruel to the unattractive who try to legislate it away.


9 posted on 12/12/2010 6:46:54 PM PST by OrangeHoof (Washington, we Texans want a divorce!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Amy, you really have covered thus pretty well.

Feminists have hurt women in many ways. One older female friend of mine was a pretty lady, but a fairly hard-core feminist. Only in her later years, after she was past 40 or so (but she still looked great), did she come to realize that men weren’t out to hurt her. But by then she’d dated a gay guy for over ten years in a basically non-sexual relationship and a bunch of divorced men who were easy for her to use and turn down. She’s approaching 60 and has never been married and wishes she’d lived her life in an entirely different way.

She knew “nice” guys who would have, as she thought, tied her down, even though the ladies they married were/are still quite happy. But she went for the higher profile men and made sure they kept their distance.

She openly states the many ways the feminist movement’s bilge corrupted her and many others she’s known. She’s been pretty conservative for some years now, but her tastes are still fixed in the directions to which she was accustomed in many ways.

She still looks pretty good, and she’s pretty engaging, but she’s dated or knows all the guys in her city that amount to anything. Unfortunately, single, conservative Christian men are hard to come by at 57.

I hope the best for her, as she’s quite alone now after her parents and sister have passed on.

Feminism has helped lay waste to many lives as it has sought to undermine a country.


10 posted on 12/12/2010 6:48:36 PM PST by ConservativeMind ("Humane" = "Don't pen up pets or eat meat, but allow infanticide, abortion, and euthanasia.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rsobin

No one can look precise every day; it varies. Well, perhaps this Alcon woman looks all curled and powdered every day. So, good for her. I have to live a practical life, actually getting out in the elements, letting my slightly graying hair blow in the wind, stacking firewood, feeding the fire, feeding the animals, cooking, cleaning, etc. I’m 64 and had to face facts head on a long time ago.


11 posted on 12/12/2010 6:51:18 PM PST by Twinkie (Doing nothing is the most tiring job there is; you can't quit and rest . .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Persevero

SJP has a SMOKING hot body, but her face leaves me unimpressed. I actually like Brittney Spears now that she’s 30 and has a few pounds on her.


12 posted on 12/12/2010 7:09:56 PM PST by boop ("Let's just say they'll be satisfied with LESS"... Ming the Merciless)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Men are visual.
Fact of life.


13 posted on 12/12/2010 7:11:46 PM PST by bannie (Gone to seed.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Persevero

Dunno.
I think once “beauty” crosses a certain threshold, other things become more important. Like “Can I hold an enjoyable conversation with her?” or “Will both of us be sane at the end of an eight hour road trip?”


14 posted on 12/12/2010 7:16:44 PM PST by Little Ray (The Gods of the Copybook Heading, with terror and slaughter return!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Feminist Naomi Wolf who famously had Al Gore dressed in earth tones and advised him to assume an Alpha Male personna . Oh, the irony.


15 posted on 12/12/2010 7:20:47 PM PST by Leroy S. Mort
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OrangeHoof

I certainly don’t want to legislate it away. All that will do is force unwilling, attractive people to cohabit with the unattractive people, ultimately making the members of both groups miserable. I would rather work on becoming more attractive.


16 posted on 12/12/2010 7:22:00 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Charlie Rangel doesn't deal in average Americans. That's OK: I don't deal in crooked pols.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: libh8er

Figures, but she writes funny!


17 posted on 12/12/2010 7:25:51 PM PST by DTogo (High time to bring back the Sons of Liberty !!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Twinkie

I’m sure there are men who would appreciate that (I certainly would). And they would help you out, if they knew what’s good for them. :-)


18 posted on 12/12/2010 7:26:25 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Charlie Rangel doesn't deal in average Americans. That's OK: I don't deal in crooked pols.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: libh8er

Pink is not her color.


19 posted on 12/12/2010 7:26:31 PM PST by Frantzie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: bannie

We can’t change who we are, even when we’d like to, when it comes to these preferences. Women are visual to some extent, too, IMO.


20 posted on 12/12/2010 7:28:40 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Charlie Rangel doesn't deal in average Americans. That's OK: I don't deal in crooked pols.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-50 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson