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Peeve of the Week: Society’s Obsession with Beauty
October 30, 2008

Well if there was any room left for question before now whether our society had a twisted obsession with beauty, it’s gone.  Plenty of studies exist that say attractive people reap all kinds of benefits from their looks such as getting paid more, hired faster and recognized for accomplishments in the workplace sooner.  Or I guess recognized sooner period, accomplishments or not.  Sad, but true, indeed.  But when her face put her "one foot in the door" to The White House, Sarah Palin and the rest of us hit a new low.  All I have to say is that if she were ugly, her credentials (or lack thereof) would not have made such a ludicrous thing possible.
 
Some say it’s the presidential version of American Idol.  I don’t disagree.  I guess one could also argue that we are watching a frightening reenactment of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.  But what does that say about us?  That we’ll “look good” as we sink further into chaos?  We’ve lost our minds. 

Perplexing it is and a gazillion explanations we have.  But in particular, I like Dick Meyer’s attempt to elucidate this deterioration of the human condition in his book, “Why We Hate Us.”  Because certainly, Palin as President is a death wish of self-destructive proportions like no other.

Posted by Donna Flagg on October 30, 2008 | Comments (0)