I forgot to add a title but this new title isn't really any better.

In this thread, we attack strawmen. Sort of. This post contains a lot of references to physical attractiveness, so I want to preface it by saying that beauty is subjective, and what one person finds attractive another finds repulsive. So when I say "an attractive person" I really mean "a person whose physical appearance closely matches those qualities I or the viewer in question would find attractive," it's just easier to say it the first way. Nobody is truly ugly, and everyone is beautiful to someone. I was actually going to make a post about that alone, but I couldn't think of anything more to say than what I just did.

Anyway! Moving on:

I've heard a few people say it's "shallow" to consider looks when choosing a romantic partner. I would posit that it's only shallow when looks are the only thing that matters. Nobody would be happy waking up next to someone they thought was hideous. Anyone who says "looks don't matter" is lying or blind. The reason this becomes an issue, I think, is the perception that "cute" people are more likely to be approached (or have their approaches accepted) by members of their gender of preference, which, naturally, is a source of consternation for us non-super hot folks. For the next few paragraphs, I'm going to take a page from last post's book and copy and paste something I wrote on Reddit. (Woo, efficiency.)

I doubt very many people judge based on looks alone, but looks are the fastest and easiest way to determine whether or not you're interested in talking to someone. Let's say you're in a bar and deciding who to talk to: There's an extremely attractive person, a kind of attractive one and an unattractive one. So which one do you approach? Some people seem to have this perception that pretty people are more stuck up and ugly people are more likely to be nice, but I haven't found that to be the case. I know plenty of awesome gorgeous people and obnoxious ugly people. (I don't like saying that because physical beauty is subjective and I don't think anyone is truly "ugly" but for the sake of this post I'm going to run with it since it's easier.)

So, in the above example, it's quite possible the very attractive person is a horrible jerkface and the average one is kinda ok but not that great and the unattractive one is nicest, smartest, funniest person you'll ever meet, but it's equally possible that the inverse is true. You simply cannot know their personalities, so assuming it's equally likely any given one will be an ass or awesome, there's no reason to not approach the one you find most physically attractive first.

So it's not like society thinks ugly people have no worth (well ok some people act like that but they're idiots), just that it's the "pretty" people who always get talked to first.

I'm not sure I had a point there, really. This is just a topic I've been encountering a bit lately, and I needed something to ramble about, so this happened.

tl;dr Beauty is subjective

Pious Pies.

So I found this on reddit. This was, according to the OP, found in a day care center for 2-4 year olds. (Click to see full size picture.)



Here is the original thread for any redditors out there.

So with that out of the way: What the hell? What kind of absurd person thinks this is an acceptable message to give to 2-4 year olds? I mean, honestly? We tell kids "You don't belong to yourself, actually your body and everything about is property of an invisible entity you'll never meet or talk to, but he totally owns you." And then we wonder why they're emotionally screwed up later in life.

So, to borrow once more from Reddit's meme library: It's shit like this, Christianity. When atheists rage against religion, we're not trying to show hate for you, or your beliefs (well at least the reasonable ones, I realize there are some rabid anti-Christian atheists too). What we're raging against is people forcing those beliefs on others who don't share them. What we hate is that giving these ridiculously anachronistic and emotionally detrimental messages written by desert nomads thousands of years ago to our children is not only acceptable, but pious and commendable. Yes, I realize not all Christians are on board this boat. I'm not trying to make any blanket statements or act like everyone who believes in God is responsible for the actions of every other theist. However, that doesn't mean I'm not going to blogrant about crap like this. =(