judgement

lately, it seems to be bugging me when people say something about another's appearance and then say, "not that looks matter" or something of that kind. what a load of crap.

i think i want to go on the record now (although, i may recant in the future) - but looks do matter.

we as humans have 5 senses ... we have to use these senses to make decisions, judgements, discriminate. depending on the situation, we are limited in which senses we can use to help guide our judgements. with people, we've got sight, sound and smell (and as long as you don't give the person the no feeling, touch). i guess you have taste too - but that's for a more, uh, intimiate type of judgement.

i guess it gets me that we have absolutely no problem with discriminating against people on their smell. if someone has bad b.o., it leads us to believe that they don't have good hygiene and perhaps they're someone that we want to stay away from. maybe we think this is an ok judgement to make because smell is something that a person can work on, can mask, can change.

so then why isn't it ok to judge based on appearances? appearances are something that one can change. i'm not talking about drastic changes that require surgery - but rather other things that are simple. clothes, hair style, cleanliness, posture, etc. it's weird, but if someone dresses well, holds himself well - that shines out despite the good (or bad) looks that god gave him. and is it really so bad to judge on that?

we are visual beings after all, right?

or maybe i'm reading too much rand :S