There are so many serious issues like poverty, disease, war and so much more happening in this world. But for this time, take a look at an issue to which this generation is prone. Everybody, look to your left and then to your right. There are many kinds of discriminations such as sexism, racism and classism. But there is another one which is not acknowledged as much as it should be. It is called lookism, which is best defined as 'prejudice towards supposedly unattractive people’s appearance.
Lookism. Beautism. Superficial Judgement. Call it as you like because these are all the same. There is a strong tendency to categorize and judge people by their appearance all over the world. Life is already difficult. Therefore, we should not allow something like prejudice and stereotype to make us frustrated. This prejudiced process may cause people to be treated unfairly. Most people in our society tend to make a judgement on the people they barely know depending on this prejudice, believing that they must be right. Then why do you think lookism is so prevalent in our society? One of the reasons is that lookism is an instinctive behavior. Preferring something that is more beautiful is one of the undeniable human instincts. We regularly make these stereotypical generalizations based on the experiences we had and the knowledge we read about in books. Other factors that encourage lookism to be rampant among society is the influence of media.
Eventually, no one chooses to be categorized under a specific title and no one wants to be the victim of an unfair judgement. Yet, people still judge and have stereotype on others as if it were their personal rights to label others. Under such a social context, it is easy to lock people in a fixed view. Unfortunately, this issue has been with us for decades and it would probably be with us as long as the world exists and the social inequality is not solved. Obviously, it is due to social inequality and high standards of beauty that people set in their minds. In this case, people are more likely to judge others by their appearance than by their inner qualities. It would be cliched to say that we should not judge a book by its cover, but the importance of appearance is increasing day by day. The images provided by the media bombard us with what is considered beautiful, but what can we do about this? It is unlikely that there will be an answer, but we have to make our continuous effort to find it out. As a result of our efforts, we can have a sense of belonging, which helps to increase our self-confidence and achieve our inner peace. Finally, we are to recover our self-esteem, feel proud of who we are, and acknowledge others as who they are.
