Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Beautiful

atheist blog
Beautiful things, beautiful people.
Have you ever thought about how attracted we are to beautiful things and beautiful people. 
I wonder why. Is there an evolutionary advantage to possessing beautiful things? 
Does a person with a beautiful face possess an evolutionary advantage?

Have you ever been around a really beautiful person? Isn't it weird how much of a buzz it is to be around a truly physically beautiful person.
It is more than the stereotype of how silly some men can act around beautiful women because women act different around beautiful people too. At least I do. I'm aware of it. It's not a sexual thing, it's like a buzz. It's like some kind of intoxication.

Imagine a beautiful face. We have to look at it; we can't look away. We begin to act giddy; we want to make the beautiful person smile at us; we want their approval or their attention.
I wonder why.

Some studies that I read tonight* as I studied this question suggest that when we see a beautiful face we assume certain traits about that person. We assume upward mobility, success, affluence, and a generally good life. Some studies further suggest that attractive people affect employers, politics, judges, police, people around them in places across the globe. Beauty is celebrated. It is privileged. It has power.

Evolutionary biology would suggest that beautiful people ensure the passing on of genetics by producing more offspring. I'm not at all sure that that truly happens, but an unspoken power exists for a beautiful person, male or female, estrogen or testosterone. Some people are willing to overlook a good number of unpleasantness of personality when a person is very beautiful. 
I wonder why. 

The other day we were talking about an old friend of ours who is truly beautiful. She possesses beautiful features and she's a lovely, accomplished human being to boot. The reason I kept thinking about this young woman was less about her features than about my own response to her. To beautiful people. I feel a strange euphoria around truly beautiful people.

Do you?
I wonder why.



* BTW, check out the links to some very interesting reading; each word highlighted is a different link!

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