Stephen King's It— a 1000 page epic of a shape-shifting evil from beyond time— features a clown named Pennywise. The clown doesn't This dancing clown grins through all the horror and gore in It and exudes malevolent wit. While King’s villains are often frightening, Pennywise's wit approaches camp without really being funny.Zach Handlen describes It as "set largely in a single small town in Maine. [W] hile it spans decades, the main action takes place in two distinct time periods.—1958, which … [Read more...]
Facial symmetry is sexy, but why?
Facial symmetry has been felt to be attractive, even sexy, because our DNA correlates symmetry with good health. But Stephanie Pappas reports on a recent study that calls all this into question:Despite the widespread assumption that symmetry might be a sign of good health, studies have turned up little evidence of a link between the two. A few small studies have linked facial asymmetry with some short-term health woes, like scratchy throats, but many others have found no links at all.However, … [Read more...]
Which of Kate Middleton’s features most requested by plastic surgery patients?
What can I say? An article on plastic surgery that mentioned Kate Middleton, Scarlett Johansson, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, and other paragons of female beauty caught my eye. Maybe it did because the political news about Donald Trump this week has focused on his fat-shaming and battles concerning a former beauty queen. Celebrating the female face and body seems downright wholesome by comparison, even if cosmetic surgery feeds into the lookism of western societies.Plastic surgery and Kate … [Read more...]
Beauty varies by country/sex, but lookism still fuels surgeries.
As we try to fight lookism, we see one obvious factor supporting our cause. It is the fact that beauty and attractiveness vary by sex and by country. That is, men and women have different ideals regarding attractiveness as do people from different countries. (Not so commonly referenced is the factor that attractiveness ideals change over time, e.g., the 1800s, the 1920s, the 1950s, now).Most distressing, however, is the fact that western media (films, magazines, the internet, etc.) are spreading … [Read more...]
Jesus with a cleft lip in Mary-Magdalene biopic?
Joaquin Phoenix Will Likely Play Jesus with a cleft lip.Hollywood is abuzz with the news that Joaquin Phoenix will likely play Jesus, with a cleft lip, in a new movie about Mary Magdalene—an important woman in Jesus' life. It will reportedly be "an authentic and humanistic portrait of one of the most enigmatic and misunderstood spiritual figures in history.” Jesus with a cleft lip will be a first.Other actors to have famously taken on the role of Jesus in past films include Willem Dafoe (The … [Read more...]
Lookism equal time: what makes a woman attractive?
In last week's lookism blog post, I passed on six scientifically proven tips on how men can be more physically attractive to women. In the interest of fair play, now we have six for women – all based on scientific studies presented by a respected source. Lookism originally started as men ogling women.Because of the importance of marriage to women historically, many young women have tried to figure outover the ages what makes them attractive to men. Science has recently generated many studies … [Read more...]
“Lookism” and dishonesty about ugliness.
In my last blog, I wrote about the kids edition of "Ugly." Today, I'm writing about the adult version that brings up a complicated lookism issue: can we be butt-ugly honest about the role of looks in society?Ugly & Lookism.First, let's hear from the "subject" of this inquiry, Robert Hoge.To hear Hoge tell it, he was born with a giant tumor on his forehead, severely distorted facial features, and legs that were twisted and almost useless. His mother refused to look at him when he was born, … [Read more...]