I'm a pretty attractive young woman and most of my boyfriends have been....not attractive.
What mattered to me was their intelligence and more importantly, how we meshed. If you click with someone, that likely changes how you see them. I also admired qualities in them.
On the flip side, even though I'm attractive and have an elegant physique and face, I am a mess, bipolar all. So since my body language, behavior, and general representation reflects my inner state, I seem a lot less attractive than I am.
If I was confident and had all the qualities a wished I did, I think I would be more comparable to Grace Kelly (a compliment I received from a stranger before I opened my mouth lol)
What nature gives us isn't fair, but it can be worked around. Easier said than done, but if you are able to be confident, even if it's fake, then I think you'll see people treat you differently. Especially if you do so while being kind and making others feel good. That's a huge part of winning people over.
Dale Carnegie might be some help there. And remember that the thing about confidence is no one knows if it's real or not :^)
Here we go. Always this. Every time.
The things is, nothing you said denies that being physically unattractive is a significant detriment. One which colors everything to some degree and is quite unrelenting.
This isn't about attractive people who "have problems too".
But whenever the topic comes up, that's what people who are physically attractive always seem to want to believe..in order to insert themselves into something that has nothing to do with them (fortunately for them,
very fortunately).
You have provided plenty of evidence that you have absolutely no clue what this particular nightmare is like, yet you felt the need to humble brag and come into this thread to lecture those who have to endure this.
This happens every.single.time. someone brings this topic up.
Like the wealthy at a podium, life coaching the perpetually impoverished.
It's not inspirational, it's condescending and invalidating and doesn't take away the reality that will continue to cause suffering, no matter how much a person tries to exhaust themselves compensating to fight against it.
Shall I go into a thread about being a "mess" and "bipolar" and flippantly state:
"Hey guys, I am most certainly NOT any of the things you are, I am actually luckily the complete opposite [unnecessary details about privilege and inverse experience] but I do have to deal with [blank], [blank] and [blank]!
So that means your problems must not mean anything after all, right!?"
I mean, what is your point? (might as well be rhetorical at this stop in the road..)
Because I guarantee you that no amount of controllable traits, like how you display your outward personality, are going to negate the effects of your attractive appearance.
Certainly not with how you described it.
You would have to be a pretty despicable human being to even come close to that being a reality. Because people are just
that incredibly superficial, whether they announce it to you or not.
It's been proven that being easy on the eyes leads to more leniency and forgiveness towards one's other faults, while also highlighting or interpreting other unrelated and averagely decent traits as exemplary.
So part of the reason you may be so comfortable with outing these other "undesirables" about yourself, is because you know they are a pittance in comparison to the desirables.
Not to mention..you apparently know what you're
saying &
doing wrong and can change it..but the same is nowhere near as doable or in reach to those who would have to alter their physical looks (not
words or
actions) to a degree that would make any legitimate difference.
Perhaps you do not care as much about the physical attractiveness of your partners (and we can really only go by what you claim) because you yourself are attractive, and would seem even more so by comparison.
(Intelligence is also a privilege btw, and the rather objective sort people refer to is also not a choice nor earned, just like looks.
You also clearly establish these boyfriends as unattractive even
after supposedly coming to the conclusion that other attributes ought to change how you see them.)
And let's be honest-women know looks matter for them 'more' than most, so while both sexes are absolutely affected, it's a common observation that women tend to care more about their own appearance and men more about the appearance of the woman on their arm (if we are being heteronormative).
And that's only to speak of romantic/sexual relationships, when lookism affects far more than that. So your example doesn't cut it.
Still, even this one tendency is indicative of the whole overarching topic, it's not in opposition to it…it's just another branch with certain complexities and psychologies going on.
There's also plenty of people who lack other qualities on top of lacking good looks..it is not one or the other.
Especially since being treated as less than for so long isn't exactly conducive to the nurture of a pleasant personality (or a fruitful life).
To that point, if I'm coming across as indelicate or brusque, it's because I'm fed up and at my wits' end with the patterns of responses I see for this topic, and this topic alone.
(Please don't think you're the only one, you're most definitely not.)
It's just unnecessary and takes away from those suffering.
Not everything can nor should have to be "worked around".
(All of us on this site should know better about that much.)
You try it. Ruin your appearance permanently and see how difficult it is to feel comfortable in your own skin-to look in the mirror multiple times a day and at your numerous pictures/memories and come to terms with
that being "You", reflected in the eyes of others, called by your name, immortalized in the digital age long beyond your natural life..
never mind trying to make everyone
else feel comfortable and see anything besides what meets the eye…if they even let you get so far as to make such an attempt.
Some appearances open doors, others close them..before you can even so much as
say or
do a thing.
Confidence does not come out of thin air.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not something you can just call into being.
The real deal is a natural development or culmination of having other traits (most often, inborn) and securities in place.
And why should we have to be fake?
That is utterly exhausting..to people please the very people who treated us like actual garbage and third class citizens, both overtly and covertly.
Been there, done that, as many of us have.
It only enables people to sustain the expectation of us being a doormat or a comedian or anything to "apologize" for our appearance.
I'm not here to be a blood bag to keep others' cheeks flush, keep them feeling bright and merry while I'm run ragged like a maid tending to the fortune of others.
You can only give what you get.
Why is the burden on the unattractive to "win people over"..??
That is part of the problem with this bigger picture..the burden for change is being put on the wrong set of shoulders.
What nature gives us is not fair, you're right..but that doesn't mean we should just accept that fact in the sense of letting it guide us to further agreement with it.
And not all situations that nature offers are equal, interchangeable nor comparable.
Not at all.