Beautifulpeople.com

IanExMachina

Just looking at bbc news and there is an article about this dating website.

Beautifulpeople.com gets existing users to vote on whether or not someone's attractive enough to join.

I honestly hate the idea of this. Fucking vanity and arrogance.

EDIT:

The story was about the site banning 30k users who joined up when the rating system was down.

Have a twatty comment by the site's managing director:

"We have sincere regret for the unfortunate people who were wrongly admitted to the site and who believed, albeit for a short while, that they were beautiful," 

Vivi

My mom's a member.

RedEyedAbyss

So what then lies behind their masks?

IanExMachina

^ A shallow personality.

Vivi

My mom isn't shallow

vacasama

Hmm, that implies something but it isn't shallowness.

IanExMachina

^^ 

All due respect to your mother, but the whole site is based upon looks.

So I'd go for the majority being shallow.

ninjaclown

Yeah, we're really trying to resist calling your mom vain.

WHICH SHE IS

Chagen

Well, I'm very fucking sorry that I'd like to look at my would-be wife and not be dissappointed in her bad looks.

Vivi

This is different Chagen. They are criticising people who whore for compliments based on looks, and think they are better for being good-looking. I think my mom just wants to know what people think.

IanExMachina

Chagen looks do play a role.

As does personality.

Purely aiming for one isn't the greatest recipe for a relationship.

Also what Vivi said.

RedEyedAbyss

Unless she got that way by smoking or other bad lifestyle habits (yes, I mention that every time this comes up), why would you be disappointed on that basis alone?

For me, an amiable personality can make any face or body look beautiful, hence the existence of Ugly Cute. But that's mostly because mutual acceptance is the most important thing to me in a relationship.

ninjaclown

I kinda want to see what happens when these people get horribly disfigured and realize their lives are ruined.

RedEyedAbyss

Oh, you don't need to be horribly disfigured. Most celebrity jobs inherently have a quick expiry date.

Vivi

Well, I like the person to be attractive physically as well as mentally and emotionally.

RedEyedAbyss

Physical beauty helps. What a person shows on the outside is a product of personal expression, hence why some people put on such outlandishly flamboyant costumes.

ninjaclown

And the site keeps track of all three OH WAIT

Vivi

That's not what the site is for. It is for appearance. Don't like don't click.

ninjaclown

I never clicked, I'm complaining about here. There's a difference.

Vivi

I didn't mean literally.

IanExMachina

So don't complain fullstop then?

As really I do find the whole thing so shallow/arrogant/vain

(No offence to your mother again.)

Especially the arrogance of the beautiful people = inherently better people.

┻━┻ ︵ ヽ(`Д´）╯︵ ┻━┻

Beautiful people are better than ugly ones(or at least beautiful humans, which humans use as a synonym for people anyway), as far as perception goes, according to the "our standards will just change to make people ugly again if we made everyone beautiful" people, as they are apparently only beautiful because they allow us to escape the disgust we feel looking at the ugly, and the opinion of the majority is what is correct in this case, when we consider what people assign as righteous and wrongful.

At the very least we tend to base this on the information we have, when we only have information of their physical appearance, then whatever is better than is what is better, while many times the less physically attractive are often considered better due to their other qualities that make them seem better to look at.

I find it odd how there is a certain pride in many ugly people though, where they believe themselves to be better exclusively on the basis of being less physically attractive to the majority, even if they do not know the non-physical qualities of the beautiful people they look down on.

Vorpy

I find it odd how there is a certain pride in many ugly people though,
where they believe themselves to be better exclusively on the basis of
being less physically attractive to the majority, even if they do not
know the non-physical qualities of the beautiful people they look down
on.


"beauty is skin deep"

"well it looks like a pretty deep dig for you, fattie"

ninjaclown

High five, Vorpy.

Vorpy

-high fives-

Vivi

This forum would be the best high school.

MousaThe14

This very idea is dickish merely because there isn't a universal standard for beauty, the concept is too subjective and would only lead to an insular snobbbish narrow minded group.

Hatter

Mousa, if the concept of beauty is subjective, then allowing people to vote on what they consider beautiful is the best way of determining what is beauty.

Don't get me wrong, I find the idea of a dating site based solely around looks to be shallow as fuck, but at the same time pretending that beauty doesn't exist just reeks of sour grapes.

MousaThe14

I'm not saying it doesn't exist, I never said that, I'm saying that it's too subjective to be able to have a solid consensus on what it is.

Hatter

Scientists have been figuring out how people determine what is beautiful, though. For example, people with "mixed" features - even if they don't exist - are deemed more attractive, because the blending of different facial features is a sign of genetic variation. Symmetry (but not perfect symmetry) is also considered attractive, because a symmetrical face is a sign that the person is disease-free and had good prenatal and postnatal care. In men, wider shoulders, muscles and hirsuteness are considered attractive, especially when the woman is ovulating, while in women large, perky breasts and wide hips are considered attractive.

This isn't true for everyone, but overall women will choose men who are most physically fit and assertive when they're ovulating, and when they aren't ovulating will choose more feminine men (because they're seen as better caretakers). Men are overall more attracted to women who are better suited for childbirth and child-rearing.

Culture also has an effect. In most cultures, light-skinned women were prized because it was a sign of wealth - a woman who didn't have to work out in the fields would have paler skin. Until relatively recently, smaller breasts were more attractive in western culture, because large breasts were perceived as matronly. In almost all cases, physical characteristics that indicate wealth and youth are perceived as attractive.

I've got my own theory that tanning and skinniness are popular now because it's a sign that the woman has the time and wealth to sunbathe and eat healthy, fat-free food. I have no way of proving that, though.