by Jondi Schmitt

Created on: July 18, 2008

As much as we all would like to be able to say we look beyond the outside and see "inner beauty," honesty should prevail. When I hear someone say that, I have to call their bluff. Our society is an outer beauty society and there is no denying it.
When was the last time you saw some horribly overweight, zit-covered woman on the cover of a magazine? Even the freaks that appear frequently on the cover of the Enquirer have some element of beauty in their freak hood.

We were given the gift of sight at creation and with that gift come positive and negative effects. On the positive side, we get to see the beauty (there is that word again) of the world around us. That beauty includes other people, other beautiful people. Even animals gravitate towards more perfect specimens of their species as mates.
Many people today blame the media for society's obsession with beauty, but even animals gravitate toward more perfect specimens of their species as their mates. That, in itself, proves that the gift of sight inherently makes us enjoy looking at the more perfect specimens of our own species.
Does our obsession with beauty mean "ugly people" can't be beautiful? Not exactly. We may not see the less perfect specimens of our species on the cover of People any time soon, but there are ways around society's obsession with natural beauty (and I don't mean plastic surgery).
Modern times bring us wonderful things like make-up and limitless styles of clothing and shaping garments. These items can be used to bring out our best features. Let's face it, even the most beautiful people in the world have to wear the right things or they, too, can look pretty hideous!
The gray areas of beauty are, perhaps, where "inner beauty" comes into play. I have seen some "unattractive" people, by society's standards, light up a room with a smile. Some of the ugliest people on the outside find ways of transcending their flaws by shining their inner-most desires through their eyes and their facial expressions. A beautiful smile can carry a person a long way.
I had a professor in college once lecture about his "prettiness/ugliness" scale for an entire 3-hour class. At the time, I was annoyed because it had absolutely nothing to do with the subject matter of the course. But here I am, years later, and it still sticks with me. He said people are on a linear scale of prettiness and ugliness. He talked about the "popular kids" we all loved to hate in high school - they were towards the top of the scale. Then there are the zit-covered geeks who, surprisingly, live somewhere towards the middle of the scale. The bottom of the scale, he said, really is reserved for people who are, for all intents and purposes, downright hideous.
So, now that you know about the scale, start watching couples around you. You will rarely ever see someone dating or married to someone else who are more than 2 steps above or below them on the prettiness/ugliness scale. When my professor said this, I thought he was being ridiculous. But then I started watching and he was right! We gravitate towards people who are similar to us in their amount of outer beauty!
When you do see that rare couple that are obviously walking outside of this prettiness/ugliness scale norm, there are usually one of two reasons for it: 1. Money. One of them has it, one of them wants it. OR 2. The uglier of the two has found a way to transcend their ugliness. In other words, they have some beautiful features that shine when they are paired with the person's wonderful and magnetic personality.
Beauty is indeed, in the eye of the beholder. And the beholder finds beauty within 2 steps of their own beauty!

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