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The Power of Beauty
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One of the most successful,
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influential and beloved women in American history,
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Eleanor Roosevelt once said that she had one regret:
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she wished she had been prettier.
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Who hasn’t felt the same way?
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We are all too aware of our physical imperfections.
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To overcome them,
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we spend billions upon billions of dollars every year on cosmetics,
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diet products, fashion, and plastic surgery.
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Why do we care so much about how we look?
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Because it matters.
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Because beauty is powerful.
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Because even when we learn to value people
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mostly for being kind and wise and funny,
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we are still moved by beauty.
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No matter how much we argue against it or pretend to be immune,
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beauty exerts its power over us.
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There is simply no escape.
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Aristotle said,
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“Beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of introduction.”
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It’s not fair, but it’s true.
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We simply treat beautiful people better than we do others.
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Attach a photograph of a beautiful author to an essay,
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and people will think that is more creative and more intelligently written
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than exactly the same essay accompanied by the photo of a homely author.
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Our sensitivity to physical beauty is not something we can control at will.
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We are born with it.
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Experiments conducted by psychologist Judith J. Langlois
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showed that even small infants prefer to look at attractive faces.
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Before they have met a single supermodel,
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before they have watched a single TV show,
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before they have opened up a single fashion magazine,
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they are drawn to the same faces which adults have judged to be attractive.
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There are more important things in life than beauty.
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But as Etcoff says,
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“We have to understand beauty, or we will always be enslaved by it.”
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If you aim to be wise and kind and funny,
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it doesn’t mean that you can’t also try your best to look beautiful.
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There’s no reason to feel guilty about being moved by beauty’s power.
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It moves us all.
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