If offered, would you choose to be spectacularly beautiful?

I would. In a male way.

Are we talking about being spectacularly beautiful as deemed by general consensus or self perception?

For free? With nothing to lose? Umm, okay?

I am relatively happy with my features and the way I look. Although, if the option was given to me, I would really like to have beautifully clear skin, and no teeth problems. Other than that, I can deal with everything else.

if it came with no negative aspects, like i became dumb as hell, then yeah sure, why not

Nope, its like if someone offered to give you a Ferrari for free, you’d say yes, but then it comes that u have to pay for the insurance, the petrol, the minimum scratch in the paint will cost you like buying a new Lancer… Beauty has it’s price, and trust me, is not worth it because you can’t stop time…

Besides, I think, whta u got inside (the head & ur heart) is the most valuable aspect of a person…

@wildflower
I mean by generally accepted standards.

@richardhenry and @waterskier
Can there ever be spectacular beauty “with nothing to lose” and “with no negative aspects”?

@flameboi: I see what you mean about the paranoia of growing old, but this does depend on the person. I do know girls that are scared of losing their looks as they grow old or by other means, and I guess it may end up hurting you more than helping you and you make a fair point.

@Harp: I suppose not. I guess you would lose some things, but I don’t believe it’s to a horrible degree. Some very beautiful people lose intellectual credibility, but not very often, and it very likely has more to do with their personality. In my opinion, it depends how you handle yourself. If you know you’re beautiful, then that’s a different matter and a very clear disadvantage.

Interesting question. I read a couple books/papers that suggested that women who are really beautiful tend to be viewed as less intelligent—they’re more likely to be hired for low-level positions, like secretaries, but less likely to be hired for high-level positions, like professors. So I think I would let my ambition beat out my narcissism. Maybe.

The most negative aspect I see to great physical beauty is how radically it skews the way everyone relates to that person. Most people simply can’t relax and be themselves in their presence. I wonder how it would feel to have everyone around you be on the make in some way, or jealous, or making assumptions about what it’s like to be you. Wouldn’t you always be wondering why the people who like you “like you”? Wouldn’t you long for a little anonymity and normalcy?

I think I’d pass on the offer then. If everyone around me found me spectacularly beautiful, I’d always be suspicious of people’s motives and whether I’d be seen as anything but a pretty face, etc.
It’s more character-building to not live that kind of charmed life

Now if I could be perfectly happy with my own appearance – regardless of what others think of it, then I might accept.

See the problem with this is that there really isn’t any generally accepted standards as such. For example have a look at the simple difference in opinion of beauty between wildflower and playthebanjo here. What I think is beautiful is not necessarily the same as what you’re perception would be. Another example: me and the missus completely disagree on whether Sarah Jessica Parker is beautiful or not.

If it was, as wildflower asked earlier, and it was a self perception kind of beauty, I can’t see how and why anyone would say no, apart from that, I don’t know if I’d take you up on the offer.

Babo is beautiful!!!

Yes, yes Babo.. You are beautiful.

I completely agree with Osullivan. My definition of spectacularly beautiful is different from someone else’s. So I dont think one truely could be spectacularly beautiful.. That is, to everyone.

@richardhenry
Is not you actually have fear of getting old, is just that is something it has to happen, to some people, it happens graciously (George Clooney – Sophia Loren) and for other don’t (Marlon Brando – Bridgette Bardot) i think it depends on the way u appreciate yourself… if u take care, u’ll be fine, if u don’t…

I think that spectacular beauty is a curse; my mother was a great beauty objectively; she was tapped twice by Hollywood talent scouts and appeared in 13 movies between 1931–1932. She then married my father and hid behind her beauty her whole live. She was timid, afraid to take any risk, worried about what “they” were saying, wearing, doing all the time. She wanted her life to unroll like a Hollywood love story that had a happily-ever-after ending.

So she alternated between fantasy and narcissism and always had a sense of entitlement.

She developed no intellectual skills, other than looking gorgeous and pleasing the man in her life. Now that she is old and w/o a boyfriend, she is lonely and adrift. She doesn’t know how to make and keep women friends or related to her two daughters, 7 wonderful grandchildren and three adorable great-grands. Very sad.

Being “not bad” looking has held me in very good stead. And as I become decrepit and achy, I still have a brain that works.

I agree with flameboi.

It’s someones heart and mind that make them beautiful. I would rather look the way I do now and have a beautiful heart. That’s what really matters.

What if I already am?

Then you are ahead of the rest.

I have this problem, which is why I hide behind my coneheaded mask… ;-)

I agree with flameboi, i am happy with my looks and am really suspicious of offers that at first glance might seem like a “golden opportunity” but once you think about it you realize all the side effects that come with it. in reality, i am not a fan of “perfect beauty” as it is. I don’t like “pretty boys”, its more about the natural/raw beauty that attracts me.

Thank you PnL & babygall, The “I agree with flameboi” sounds so cool :D u just made my day, or what’s left of it…
No, seriously, I agree with u 2, the natural looks, great personality and brilliant mind keeps me interested in a woman, not exactly the way she looks.

I find that I’m not attracted to perfect, or “model,” beauty. Any body shape, facial structure, skin color or skin type can hold that certain je ne sais quoi for me.

I would much rather be considered attractive than beautiful. Plus, Chicks dig scars. The defense rests, your honor.

MY sis and I grew up with a spectacularly beautiful woman. My mother was tapped by two separate Hollywood agents and appeared in 13 MGM movies from 1931–1932.(she was 18–19 yrs old.) She forgot to develop skills other than looking gorgeous and obsessing about appearances.

She was overprotected by my father and he treated her like a helpless trophy. As she aged, she has been sadly unprepared to replace her lost looks with hobbies, women friends, delight in her kids, grandchildren and great-grands or interest in any of the myriad wonders our world holds.

I was grateful to be “not bad looking.” That enabled me to have a richer and more complex life.

Living with a self-centered, almost classically narcissistic mother who cared more about what “they” said we should do, be, wear, was very difficult. Oh, those rules about no white shoes after Labor Day….

I wish I had the looks of one those hunks in the boy bands.

Everyone has beauty, but in different ways. Not everyones beauty has to show from the outside. Some are hidden inside.

As a man, I think there is very little downside. It’s not fair of course but I think few people question a man’s intellectual abilities even if he is very attractive. So, if I didn’t have to change genders, then yes, I would choose this. I think that physical beauty helps people achieve things all the time and I would love to add this asset to help me do what I want to do in life. It would be the crowning jewel of my manipulative arsenal. Seriously, the thing this question made me think about is how much physical beauty and perceptions of beauty shape our personalities. The real problem is that if I were exceptionally beautiful especially growing up than I probably would have not developed the same sense of humor. Humor almost always comes from being ostracized or at least the perception of being an outside in some way. The best scenario would be to be hideously ugly growing up until you were about eighteen or twenty, develop a good sense of humor/be a dork, and then suddenly come into your own as an exceptional physical specimen. I’ve met a few people like that. Just a few. When you run into them, it’s astounding. Let’s not talk about them.

Off-thread:Sorry about the duped answer I sent in. It seemed as tho the first one got lost. So I rewrote from memory. (Then- ugh- both showed up. So I certainly made my point.)

On-thread: when I went back to a 40th reunion for HS, the best-looking guy there had been a beardless butterball in high school, 6 inches shorter than all of us. Now, wowsa.

That’s OK gail; it was good enough to read twice.