Romcom tropes; beauty, personality and desireability
Who is more attractive to you?
a) Someone who is very physically beautiful and knows it, using it to their full advantage, empowered by it.
b). Someone who's very physically beautiful and doesn't have much awareness of that fact, existing as an walking understatement, shy, clumsy, unassuming. Innocent and sweet.
Should beautiful people act in a way that acknowledges that, should they feel any sense of entitlement/superiority? Do they have a right to be picky/have high standards?
Or should they practice meekness/innocence and maintain a humble attitude? Is soft kindness the ultimate virtue of the stunning?
Lastly, what influence does gender stereotype/expectation and inequalities have on these romcom tropes we commonly see? Is that appropriate in this day and age? What message does it send to impressionable young women and men that grow up consuming these tropes?
a) Someone who is very physically beautiful and knows it, using it to their full advantage, empowered by it.
b). Someone who's very physically beautiful and doesn't have much awareness of that fact, existing as an walking understatement, shy, clumsy, unassuming. Innocent and sweet.
Should beautiful people act in a way that acknowledges that, should they feel any sense of entitlement/superiority? Do they have a right to be picky/have high standards?
Or should they practice meekness/innocence and maintain a humble attitude? Is soft kindness the ultimate virtue of the stunning?
Lastly, what influence does gender stereotype/expectation and inequalities have on these romcom tropes we commonly see? Is that appropriate in this day and age? What message does it send to impressionable young women and men that grow up consuming these tropes?
Comments (3)
Option a) above is in real situations, repellant.
Touchy subject. Our constitution says all men are created equal. The gender omission of the preceding sentence is an example of how treacherous is the road to social justice.
Quoting Benj96
I subscribe to the dictum, "Know thyself!" If you exemplify what your culture regards as beautiful, you should know that about yourself and thus, behaving honestly in social situations means not parading false modesty before your friends. Given the power of physical beauty, it's hardly possible for the beautiful to be clueless about the fact, so putting on false humility is wrong. At any rate, whatever your physical package, it's good policy to couple honesty with sincerity when interacting with others.
As for rom-coms, they play a role in establishing and maintaining standards of beauty, so their influence is probably quite deep. There is evidence some humans will accept a particular standard of beauty mainly because it has been reenforced by the consensus of many people over a long period of time. Does political correctness counteract this? I'll wager that many people will pay lip service to political correctness when the stakes are low while inwardly maintaining self-serving politically incorrect standards of beauty and importance. I'm guilty of this wrong.
Your choice between A and B is sort of passive/aggressive.
There is a beauty that pushes buttons other people have. There is a kind that reveals to you what you like. The latter requires a different investigation than having to put in ear plugs to stop hearing the Sirens.