Beauty Socialism in the West

There is a distinct phenomenon in the U.S. and other developed Western countries that I call beauty socialism.

This social phenomenon seeks to give unattractive people equal footing with attractive people. It does so by demonizing, degrading, and ostracizing attractive people on the one hand, and by providing unattractive people a false ego. It’s a form of socialism in a way.

The Vilification of Beautiful People

Attractive people in the U.S. and other developed Western countries get punished for their good looks to offset the unfair advantages they have over average and below-average-looking people – mainly in dating. If you’re a good-looking guy or girl, you’re caricatured as insecure, shallow, selfish, snobbish, dumb, and all sorts of unpleasant things.

You’re made to feel like it’s wrong to look the way you do. And you face strong pressure (bullying and ostracism to be more precise) into looking uglier.

And unfortunately, many good-looking people give up to this pressure. They gain weight, they wear face masks in public, and they do all kinds of things not to have a target on their back because of their beauty.
As someone who’s considered good-looking, I’ve experienced this bullying and harassment firsthand, as has practically every good-looking guy I know.

It’s the same story with beautiful women who have to deal with the jealousy of other women and also the wrath of guys who don’t have a chance. The movie Malena is a good illustration of this.

You’re also pressured by society into dating people who you don’t find attractive – people who are objectively below your league in terms of looks. This is similar to the bride kidnapping we see in backward societies where women are forced to marry guys they don’t find attractive.

Under normal conditions, good-looking people date and marry other good-looking people. That’s how things naturally flow under free circumstances.

But many unattractive people don’t like that. They try to thwart this process using various means so they have a chance of dating beautiful people.

The Idealization of Ugly People

People who are average and below on the other hand are idealized. Society tells them that they possess inner beauty simply because of their unattractiveness. It’s as if lacking external beauty automatically makes you beautiful on the inside.

They’re given a false ego which they preciously cling to like a drowning person clings to something solid. It’s a comforting delusion that helps them cope with their unattractiveness.

There is a scene in the movie Liar Liar where Jim Carrey’s son says to him “My teacher tells me beauty is on the inside”. And Jim Carrey replies “That’s just something ugly people say”. What makes that scene funny is its trueness.

Of course, inner beauty is more important than outer beauty because the latter fades while the former stays. But it’s also true that many unattractive people extrapolate this idea to mean that ugly people have inner beauty but beautiful people don’t.

Their argument is that ugliness incentivizes you to be likable and to develop a nice personality. But that’s the opposite of what we see around us nowadays.

This idea may have been true before the rise of the social justice dogma (more on this later).

But under the current social climate in which beautiful people are vilified and ugly people are idealized, it’s much easier to drive out the good-looking people around you – through bullying, harassment, and mob mentality – than to work on making yourself attractive. And this is the option that most average and below-average people resort to.

It’s much easier to tear others down than to build yourself up. It took 14 years to build the twin towers, it only took a few seconds to destroy them.

This has resulted in a social climate where good-looking people are visibly discriminated against.

What Caused This Phenomenon?

I believe the current social climate is a result of our society’s obsession with equity and social justice. According to these ideologies, beautiful people are among the privileged while ugly people are among the oppressed.

And if beautiful people are seen as privileged, it means they must be punished for it and should be brought down to the level of unattractive people. That’s the rationale that justifies the mistreatment of good-looking people in our society today.

Although it’s not openly admitted, there is a very perceptible social hierarchy in the U.S. in which the uglier you are, the higher your place on the social hierarchy.

And if you’re at the top of this hierarchy, you can be abusive towards others and get away with it. Whereas if you’re at the bottom, others can be abusive towards you without impunity.

The unattractive people who are belligerent towards you are secure in the knowledge that others around them will jump in and gang up on you if you dare retaliate. This leaves you in a very vulnerable position as an attractive man or woman.

In the old days, people who were envious of your looks didn’t have any power to abuse you. But thanks to the current social order that prioritizes equity over everything else, they now have the power to do so.

And like all “privileged” groups, any form of mistreatment against good-looking people is legitimized by pointing to their supposed privilege. For women, it’s “pretty privilege”. Hollywood and the media perpetuate this fallacy.

At its core, the equity ideology is based on envy and resentment, which is why it resonates so well with people who hate how they look. It gives them the power to diminish the people whose looks they envy.

And it’s not just good-looking people who are demonized under prevailing social dogma, it’s anyone with an unfair advantage – whether it’s a person with talent, outstanding intellect or athletic ability, or any inborn ability that opens doors in life.

But what makes the current social dogma flawed is that it overestimates the upsides and underestimates the downsides of being attractive.

For example, if you’re a guy with average or below-average looks, then you don’t have to deal with the envy and resentment of other guys and the anger of women who can’t have you – problems that handsome guys typically face.

Also, look alone won’t give you a lasting advantage. Sure, being attractive may open doors for you in the short run – whether in dating or in other areas. But those doors won’t stay open unless you have something else to bring to the table. Being a one-trick pony just doesn’t do it in the long run.

Another thing to point out is that the beautiful people you’re jealous of aren’t as beautiful as they seem at first glance. Of course, there are exceptions.

Usually, the person who looks flawless at first sight actually has two or three attractive features. They may have a great smile, beautiful eyes, luscious hair, etc.. But the rest of their aesthetics is either average or ugly. But since the mind is a generalizing tool, it makes them appear flawless.

And you don’t stop there. You then assume that because this person is handsome or pretty, they live life in easy mode. They don’t have to face the pains and hardships that you face.

This misconception breeds envy and resentment. And you feel the need to impose artificial disadvantages on them to level the playing field. Someone who has good looks must be made worse off to offset the advantage they’re given by nature.

How Beauty Socialism Hurts Its Intended Beneficiaries

The irony is that leveling the playing field for unattractive people actually hurts them. It deprives them of the incentive to improve themselves, to increase their value in the dating market.

In the old days, not having natural beauty incentivized you to develop qualities to compensate for that. Now, you can simply take the easier route of driving out the good-looking people around you who compete with you for male or female attention. Or you can collectively harass and bully them into dimming down their attractiveness.

And most people would rather just take the easier option. It’s human nature to choose the path of least resistance.

But as the Buddhist saying goes, blowing out someone else’s candle doesn’t make yours shine any brighter. Your hostility towards the good-looking people around will reinforce your insecurity about your looks and make you even less desirable to the opposite sex.

Your hostility actually increases THEIR appeal to the opposite sex. By your hostility, you’re admitting your inferiority to that person. And you’re making the dating and mating game easier for them.

This new zeitgeist has neutered unattractive people of their incentive to work on themselves. As a result, the most undesirable, selfish, insecure, and callous individuals today are average and below-average-looking people, despite good-looking people being painted that way. The people with supposed inner beauty (those who are unattractive) tend to be the ugliest inside.

It’s actually someone with good looks who is incentivized to develop compensating qualities in today’s society. Beautiful people today are held to the strictest standard imaginable. And any immature behavior from them will result in the most disproportionate backlash.

And keep in mind, people usually live up to the standards that they’re held up to. Tough times create strong men.

To illustrate this point further, let’s test the idea that people who lack outer beauty are beautiful on the inside.

If you’re perfectly honest, wouldn’t you admit it’s hard to find someone who you can trust completely, someone with character? Wouldn’t you admit that most people just want to use you and can’t be fully trusted?

And as you know, most people don’t belong in the good-looking category. So most of the average or below-average-looking people you meet daily don’t possess a heart of gold, despite what political correctness tells you.

But to quote Nietzsche, “Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.”