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Re-looked

For some reason, I have always been a supporter of people who downplay their attractiveness, who despite their good looks are modest about it.

It could stem out of an insecurity of not figuring in the top 100 of the ‘People’ magazine or it could be my angst against vanity. So much that I have been a great advocate of using un-model like faces in advertisements and films.

But on careful introspection I have realized that mankind is almost maniacal in its desire to change everything around them into attractive elements. While almost all design improvements are about making functional products, there is a huge stress on it being aesthetic as well. That is about product designs. But the industry who has gained most from this predilection for looking good are the liquids, potions, lotions, soaps, gels, scrubs, masks and what not that adorn your wardrobe. Not to mention the clothing and fashion industry…and many more such ancillary industries who work towards ‘appreciating’ the beautiful you.

Despite all these happening around us, somehow there’s also a desire to be hideous about the whole dressing up occasion. At least in a man’s world. People take pot shots when they see someone take that glance at the office glass door or at the parking lot to take stock of one’s appearance.

It is also strange to see people grimace when they are supposed to answer an innocent query about their appearance…there are humour anthologies written on the husband’s predicament when faced with such a situation. How many ever give an honest opinion when someone asks this question? Atleast I don’t…just so that I would like to give them that benefit of feeling good about their looks.

And there are also ways how people circumvent the problem of calling a spade a spade. Ever heard people say, “he may not have the ‘typical’ good looks, but he has a good personality”. Someone else has a healthy look (especially curvaceous women blinking on the edge of obesity), some even saying that “he/she is photogenic…” to cover up for the fact that he/she otherwise doesn’t measure up in the looks department.

Just look at the industry that has been spun off from mankind’s obsession with beauty. Films, TV, fashion, beauty, cosmetic, fitness and the health industry, not to mention the whole chain that promote the concept of beauty spilling into your beauty pageants, beauty magazines and other media vehicles, reality shows, ..phew. The list is endless.

When you assimilate all these and try putting a finger to where it all originated from, it seems very simple yet queer that all originated from our inherent curiosity to know how we look…the desire to know how other people see us.

So in the running list of all great things mankind has discovered, the discovery of ‘reflection’ and the subsequent invention of the mirror should definitely be given a re ‘look’...atleast in the top 10 inventions that has changed, as they say, 'the face' of the human race.

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