Do excuse the apparently narcissistic (or at least
self-indulgent) nature of the following statement. It’s just my way of making a
general point. Ready?
I was looking in the mirror this morning and decided that
I’m really a rather good looking bloke. It didn’t take me long to realise, however, that I can’t
expect anybody else to agree with me because by all received means of
assessment I’m a long way short of good looking. So that got me thinking.
Should we indulge ourselves on this one? Should we
self-assess? Should we condition ourselves to believe we’re good looking no
matter what the rest of the world thinks? Well, no; there wouldn’t be any
point, would there?
Being good looking is entirely a second person concept. If
you were stranded on a desert island and knew you would never again encounter
another human being, it would be meaningless. It wouldn’t matter a jot
what you looked like. Being good looking only has any value if somebody else
thinks so, which means it’s entirely dependent on the judgement of others. And
maybe that should encourage us to question whether we should care or not.
5 comments:
Sometimes we need a healthy narcissism (I know I spelled that wrong) regardless if there's another person to validate us. We're always going to compare ourselves to another esp. societies of what constitutes good looks but that doesn't mean we have to get vain. Just a simple acknowledgement to ourselves that we like what we see i the mirror.
I fear that liking what I saw in the mirror was just a passing fancy, Wendy. I usually close my eyes to avoid it! And I think you spelled narcissism right.
I read a little while back about a social study that proved that almost all people they they are better looking than what other people think they are. I thought it was odd because it seems to me that a lot of people don't realize how attractive they are, or in other words, think they look worse than they really do.
From what i can see of you in your profile pic you are a very nice looking, rather handsome guy. And i wouldn't even say so if i didn't mean it. :)
I hope my comment doesn't show up three times... i started having problems with commenting and reading your posts after my first try... so i'll probably also be on your feedjit a lot...
That picture was taken some time ago, Andrea, and it flattered me even then. Women used to tell me that I was 'not classically handsome, but had a pleasing, characterful sort of face.' They don't say anything these days.
And comments are just one thing that's playing up at the moment. You should see the long, long list of issues being reported on the Blogger forum.
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