Is It Possible to Be Too Beautiful?

It's a terrible curse. But we all have our crosses to bear, so I've learned to accept mine. Science journalism tells us the ugly truth about beauty: there's such a thing as too much. James Hamblin writes in The Atlantic:

Yet life for the beautiful is not as perfect as it seems. In one study of job applicants, beautiful women who included a photo with their résumé were 41 percent less likely to land an interview than “plain” women who did the same [6]. When accused of homicide, beautiful women are more likely to be presumed guilty [7]. And attractive people are also more likely to be associated with a number of negative traits, such as conformity and self-promotion [3].

Link | Image: "Psyche" by William-Adolphe Bouguereau


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What I find really interesting about this is the emphasis on symmetry when it comes to measuring beauty. Try as I might, I don't see it that way regardless of the Golden Ratio. In my opinion symmetry actually makes a face more plain - it fits into place and isn't very interesting. For example the girl who's supposedly the "most beautiful woman in Britain" - sure, she's pretty, but I wouldn't really call her beautiful because her features aren't particularly striking. Any beauty she has comes from her healthy glow in her pictures (in my opinion).

I've noticed that when a person, male or female, is truly beautiful it's not the symmetry but the features and (especially) health of the person that make them so. Something needs to be a little out of place for a person to be beautiful, or something needs to be rare. For example blue eyes and dark skin is exceptionally beautiful because it's rare, etc. That's why in certain regions of the world the rarer hair or eye color is called beautiful, while in another region a different color is preferred. Or a person is beautiful for having a "misplaced" dimple or something (I suppose because that gives a bit of individuality that makes a more personal connection). I know that's just my opinion, but I can't really believe that beauty can be quantified with a ratio.
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