Some of the threads on this site have prompted a few thoughts about our increasingly unrealistic perceptions about the people around us …

Daily we face a huge barrage of messages about thinness, dieting and beauty tells "ordinary" women that they are always in need of adjustment—and that the female body is an object to be perfected. This sustains a huge industry and makes enormous profits.

Unfortunately the overwhelming presence of media images of painfully thin women means that real women’s bodies have become invisible in the mass media. The real tragedy is that many women internalize these stereotypes, and judge themselves by the beauty industry's standards. Women learn to compare themselves to other women, and to compete with them for male attention. This focus on beauty and desirability "effectively destroys any awareness and action that might help to change that climate."

The same process is beginning to happen with men although not to the same extent as yet. Men are still not subject to the harsh judgments of ‘attractiveness’ as they age and as a result are not under pressure to maintain the image.

Particularly for women, and increasingly for men, potential partners are judged through a lens of physical attractiveness driven by marketing and social norms.

It would be good for everyone if attractiveness was valued a little more holistically.