One of the most successful, influential and beloved women in American history, Eleanor Roosevelt once said that she had one regret: she wished she had been prettier. Who hasn't felt the same way? We are all too aware of our physical imperfections. To overcome them, we spend billions upon billions every year. Why do we care so much about how we look? Because it matters. Because beauty is powerful. Because even we learn to value people mostly for being kind and wise and funny, we are still moved by beauty.
Aristotle said, "Beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of introduction". It's not fair, but it's true. We simply treat beautiful people better than we do others. Attach a photograph of a beautiful author to an essay, and people will think that it is more creative and more intelligently written than exactly the same essay accompanied by the photo of a homely author. As children, beautiful people are more likely to become favorites with parents and teachers. Later, they are more likely to get good jobs. Attractive people in need are more likely to receive help from strangers.
These days, women and men both rely on advanced technology to improve their beauty. Wrinkles can be stretched away with a face lift. Special injections can make lips look young and plump (丰满的). Besides being a sign of youth, good skin also means that the person is likely to be healthy. Still, it is possible to go too far. At the end of the 19th century, some women even had their ribs (肋骨) removed so they'd have that perfect narrow waist.
Our sensitivity to physical beauty is not something we can control at will. We are born with it. Experiments showed that even small infants prefer to look at attractive faces. Before they have met a single supermodel, before they have watched a single TV show, before they have opened up a single fashion magazine, they are drawn to the same faces which adults have judged to be attractive.
There are more important things in life than beauty. But as Nancy Etcoff says, "We have to understand beauty, or we will always be enslaved by it." If you aim to be wise and kind and funny, it doesn't mean that you can't also try your best to look beautiful. There's no reason to feel guilty about being moved by beauty's power. It moves us all.
