I agree that physical attractiveness is primarily a social construct. While there are common attributes that many cultures find attractive, there are very different ideas of beauty across different cultures and time periods.
It is true that being overweight is unhealthy. That does not necessarily, however mean the person is physically unattractive. I understand that many people associate being overweight with an unhealthly lifestyle, which they find unattractive. That isn't the same, however, a the person being physically unattractive.
I think that too many people try to lose weight so they will be considered attractive, instead of to improve their health. While it is good that they are trying to lose weight, I think it would be much better to do it for the "right" reasons. The idea of beauty most common in our society seems out of reach for many people. This has a negative impact to their self-esteem, and often causes health problems due the use of extreme diets, dangerous diet drugs or unnecessary surgery. If the "attractiveness" issue weren't there, and the people were losing weight for their health instead I believe the negative impacts would be less.
The treatment that rawxstasy mentioned is another negative impact of the way our society views beauty. It is unfortunate that we live in a world in which people who need to lose weight are treated this way. It seems that more people would find the will-power to lose weight if their self esteem weren't being trashed by people who think they are "hideous".
|