Essay 3 Benefits of Being Beautiful

Nicolette Van Duysen

November 4, 2014

English 1100

Essay 3

Benefits of Being Beautiful

            No matter who you are, everyone desires beauty. Beauty is a complex subject that follows people around everywhere they go. Beauty is everywhere we look. It is in movies, magazines, and all around us. It is a constant reminder of how powerful image is and the effects it has on everyone. Just looking at the way someone is treated when they are beautiful, creates an instant jealousy and passion for it. You want to be that person that everyone likes and wants to be with, you want to get your way all of the time just based on how you look. For example, all of Disney Princesses are this tall, skinny, and shiny beautiful image that are envied by their one enemy, but are given everything they want. They are liked by everyone just simply because they are beautiful. After being a little girl watching these figures, that’s all you desire to become because, you want to be that beautiful figure receiving all of these benefits that they have gotten. Therefore, it is unfair that being beautiful has various benefits that are not given to everyone.

            Evidently, by being beautiful you could get out of stuff. For instance, it is no competition if two people did something wrong and one of them is beautiful, who has a better chance of getting out of whatever they have done. In a well-known Ted Talk, “ Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I’m a model.” by Cameron Russell, she explains as an inside source benefits she has received just by being beautiful. For instance, she explains a story about when her and her friend were teenagers; her friend was not the best driver and ran a red light. When a cop pulled them over she stated that it only took a, “Sorry officer,” and she was off the hook. She was let off free just based on the way she looked, while someone else who is not as fortunate looking as she is, is paying the price of a ticket for how they look. She then informed us that she was from New York and showed a study that claimed in 2011 over 140,000 between the ages of 14 and 18 were stopped, and 86% of that number were Black and Latino men. There is only between 120,000 and 177,000 Black and Latino men in New York. Russell then went on saying, “For them it isn’t a question of will I get stopped? But how many times will I get stopped? When will I get stopped”(Russell).  Russell admitted that she gets out of things like that based on the way she looks. That being said, it is not fair for people like Cameron Russell, just based on looks she can get extra benefits like escaping a ticket, that a majority of the people cannot just on how they look.

            In addition, people who are beautiful are more persuasive. In other words, people will most likely listen to someone that is attractive. If you are attractive you can just use sexual appeal to get what you want. It is a “no brainer” that if two people are going for the same job, and one is beautiful while the other clearly is not, it is evident who will be getting the job. In modeling that plays a huge role, which is why Cameron Russell got the job she has. She became a model because; she had more “beautiful” qualities than someone else running for it. She stated herself that she won the “genetic lottery”, and even though it was not in her control she was lucky and gets benefits by the way she looks. It is not fair that you can persuade someone that you are a better fit for something, just on how you look.

            Furthermore, it is clear that people who are beautiful get treated better. If you have the gift of being beautiful, people will like you more. That holds true even in a high school setting. Normally the “popular” kids are not the most unfortunate looking people in the school. They are beautiful figures that people look up to and want to be more like. Therefore, they automatically have better social treatment. On the other hand, you could just get better treatment with the outside word for being beautiful as well. For instance, Cameron Russell obviously she gets free stuff from being a model, but she explained a story that is completely unfair for everyone else. She walked into a store and wanted this dress, but she forgot her money. Anyone else, a store owner would just give them one look and hold the door open for them watching them leave, but for Cameron Russell they let her take the dress for free just because she was beautiful. The treatment is not fair to everyone else that just because someone is beautiful does not mean that they should just get benefits over everyone else.

            In conclusion, people that are beautiful get benefits over everyone else such as, getting off the hook for things that everyone else does not, persuade people easier, and get treated better. It is not fair that people are treated better just because, they were born more fortunate than everyone else. People could not control how they look over other people no matter how much they construct it. It is an issue that should be brought up and made awareness, even though it is such a complex subject. The concept of beauty is difficult because, it is something everyone desires and to tell everyone to ignore how much it means is like telling a fish not to swim. However, as a community something should be done to make sure everyone gets fair treatment and earns the things they get in life the same. Moreover, everyone goes through life the same way, nobody should get benefits over someone else on things we all cannot control.

Work Cited

Russell, Cameron. “Looks Aren’t Everything. Believe Me, I’m A Model.” Ted Talk,

Mid Atlantic. Oct. 2012. Lecture.

http://www.ted.com/talks/cameron_russell_looks_aren_t_everything_believe_me_i_m_a_model?language=en