I am at a coffee shop, working on many things. I am sitting across a guy who looks like Matt Damon from School Ties (sorta). I also saw a woman in the bus today who looked like Katie Holmes. I considered approaching her and telling her. My sense of propriety along with a lack of my usual boldness combined to prevent me from committing that particular gaffe. Now, sitting across Matt (for lack of a proper name) I realize how big of a gaffe it would have been. I am thankful somewhat that my ancestors have not passed me any 'famous person look alike' genes. It would be pretty irritating to live a life of assumed fame and constant misunderstanding. I recently heard a "This American Life" episode called Doppelgangers. This line of thinking has reminded me of that particular episode. You should definitely check it out. You would realize, I think, the analogy and come to a conclusion similar to mine. So the next time you think of complementing somebody with 'Hey, you have Tom Cruise eyes.' or 'Hey, you look like a tall Drew Barrymore.' just don't, okay! Note that, I am not just asking you to refrain from using these particular statements, but comparisons to famous people in general.
This brings me to a sort of related line of thought. We as a people hate being judged for our looks. People always tell me you should not judge a person by what's on the outside. Or the more popular - 'It's what's on the inside that matters." I guess they are talking about character, intellect, one's soul or something along that line. My confusion here is a fundamental one. Why is it wrong to appreciate somebody's beauty? Or give them jobs based on their appearance? Or build a relationship based on their looks? One of these is seemingly ok (at least appears to be). You can appreciate somebody's beauty. But, in practice it is not very ok. You can not walk up to someone and say "Hey, you look stunning." or "Hey, you look sexy." But it is perfectly acceptable to say, "Hey, what you said is pretty intelligent." To firmly elucidate my confusion: Intellect and creativity are as much based on good genes and are as random as large eyes, blonde hair or high cheek bones. Similar to intelligence, beauty also needs a lot of hard work to maintain and heighten. Somehow picking the best looking person is only acceptable if you are a model or an actress. People resent it when a better looking person is promoted to be the spokesperson of anything, or a news anchor, or the public face of an organization. Sometimes they are even promoted for jobs in which beauty seemingly does not have a role to play, such as a doctor. However research does suggest that we naturally trust people who are good looking. I am too lazy to provide you with a link to that research so please assume that I provided you with the pubmed link (Blame my genes).
