There are lots of studies out there assessing the link between attractiveness and happiness. The interesting thing about this one is that the article skewed the findings to make the anger sound like a bad thing ("uppity bitches!"), when in practice, it turns out it's actually a good thing:
Attractive women also had higher expectations of what they deserved. ... the same women were better at resolving situations in their favour.
So wait. They are good at resolving situations in their favor. They do this by using a tool called anger. Where's the bad? My guess is the reason the journalist framed his or her story this way is because, culturally, women are supposed to be self-sacrificial martyrs.
The article explains as an afterthought that a similar link in men was found, "...but with physical strength rather than attractiveness per se." This is interesting for two reasons:
- Most science-y studies sample men first and foremost, and then study women as an afterthought. This is because men are considered default humans, and results from studying them are of course always applicable to the female of the species, when she is considered at all.
- The only exception to the above rule is when the science-y study is about physical attractiveness. Because sexiness is solely the purview of women. They have no other identifying characteristics! Why study heart disease in women, when instead you can try to figure out which hair color is the sexiest? This study also ventures into that most noble of scientific pursuits
"...blondes rated as more attractive than brunettes and redheads."If we can learn anything from this study, it's that all ladies, whether pretty by society's standards or not, have damn good reasons to be pissed off.
So go forth and get pissed, ladies and gents. Tell me why you're pissed, or not, in the comments.
Related posts: Boys of Facebook, Casey Johnson: Beauty, wealth won't save you
I generally thought that because they were pretty, they were used to getting things they wanted, hence they were spoiled and threw bitch fits often. That's what I observed in high school... anyway.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe they were pretty because they were spoiled (hair, make up, clothes). I don't know.. perhaps that's me tapping into a jealousy issue.
ReplyDeleteI had that thought at first, too -- that the angry, pretty girls ought not have anything to be pissed about, because dammit, they're beautiful and they get everything they want, and act like divas when things don't go their way. And that's definitely part of it -- entitled behavior is absolutely inexcusable in any gender.
ReplyDeleteBut I think that's ignoring the larger problem of the fact that entitled behavior is generally only tolerated in women who are not only naturally beautiful, but also spend a great deal of time, effort and money enhancing that natural beauty. Plain ladies or ladies who make no effort to conform to beauty standards, aren't allowed to act like divas, even when they should. It's absolutely not fair, but I'm not sure it's the pretty, spoiled peoples' faults.
Good stuff, my dear! Can you clue me into your awesome sources of all these good articles? The news I read always seems boring and unrelevant :)
ReplyDelete"Plain ladies or ladies who make no effort to conform to beauty standards, aren't allowed to act like divas ... " i can't say I agree with that at all - although, i do come from an entirely different culture to you ...
ReplyDeleteMy feeling is that this only SEEMS to be the case because there is a wider arch between when a pretty woman is happy and when she is enraged. After all, pretty women lead Utopian existences and poop butterflies. Fuglys, on the other-hand, whom are perceived as being less conventionally attractive, though remain publicly acceptable as receptacles for "crazy drunk 3 a.m. shaggin" lead a more edgy, melancholic existence coated in drugs, bad music and the acidic cloak of sarcasm and sneakery and, therefor, the mouse ladder they must climb to escalate and culminate in their own dark destines of blinding, bloodspilling, bat-head-biting-rage would naturally seem more slight. Tee Hee!
ReplyDeletePrairie - I can't remember who pointed me to this particular BBC article, perhaps it was a tweet? But the last few interesting pieces of news I posted about I just heard on NPR while driving around. And the NPR critique-ing is probably going to taper off here, since I just got War and Peace to listen to on CD instead! That will keep me good 'n' occupied.
ReplyDeleteThis entire debate it the fault of the penis. Maybe, to a lesser extent, the testicles. I don't blame anyone for the fact that beautiful women are treated differently than the repulsives, that is a simple fact of human evolution. There is a reason people find some attractive and others ugly, it is a sign of genetic health. And when we come across someone who appears genetically healthy, we tend to go a little apr-shit batty and do whatever it takes to make them see us as coddling, providing alpha males. And over a lifetime of that coddled treatment, pretty women are bound to get a little pissy when that treatment is denied them for whatever reason. So, in defense of pretty bitches, its not their fault, really, you can't entirely blame them. Just slap them and move along.
ReplyDeleteeh. Men go through the same thing. It's just less overt because everyone knows that unattractive-but-intelligent loose cannon boys bend under the weight of too much social critique and are waaaay more likely to build robots. And people are wise to fear robots.
ReplyDeleteMelanie - I didn't mean that plain ladies don't act like divas. More like, when plain ladies misbehave, they aren't usually called divas. More likely, they're called some derivation of "bitter, ugly hag." Either way, women misbehaving don't get credit for having legitimate emotional reactions to injustice. It's an unfair dichotomy that undermines any point that the ugly/pretty bitch may have had in the first place.
ReplyDeleteWhat's your experience of expressing anger in the UK? Here I find that anger isn't an emotion that's "approved" for public use.
Mark - While I may shag drunk at 3 a.m. in my drug- and sarcasm-coated existence, I most certainly do not listen to bad music! Also: I am building a robot that will poop butterflies, thereby eliminating the need for all such debates in the future.
Daniel - You are 100 percent right, my friend. But it's frustrating and makes me cranky nevertheless. Seems like the human race should try to overcome its slavery to its own species in the name of ... I dunno, moral evolution or some such nonsense. And if man's inhumanity to woman can be explained by normal mating behavior, what of woman's inhumanity to woman?
Sarah - I wasn't talking about you or anyone particular! Last I recall, you were way too...erm... "confident" to deduce such a slight! At any rate, I will meet this robot one day.
ReplyDeleteOh I know, silly. Twas just ribbing, but it's hard to convey subtle funnies in type. :) Hey wait, whaddayamean "confident," huh? ARE YOU CALLING ME FAT?!?? :P
ReplyDelete