Pretty

My wife sent me this. Ms. Makkai obviously has some strong opinions about the subject. Unfortunately people are basically animals, and umpteen zillion years of evolution has made us what we are. We can bend, shape, mold ourselves with education, but what do we teach? Perhaps we can give people enough self-confidence to trust their own judgement, and teach them enough discipline to be able to figure out what they want.

I like pretty girls. I am attracted to them. They are very pleasant to watch. But I don't think I've ever had a girlfriend just because she was pretty. Matter of fact, I don't think I've ever had a girlfriend who was a complete doll, except my wife of course. Even after she sent me this I wouldn't want her to think I didn't think she is beautiful. Geez, how twisted is that?

Anyway, there is the old line about how for a woman, "your face is your fortune". For some women, fortune is important, and there are also some women whose beauty is their biggest asset. So I can excuse them for focusing attention on their assets in order to secure their position.

Anyway, somewhere along the way people figured out that a picture of a woman was almost as good as the real thing, and then technology gave us mass production of images, so everyone had access to pictures of "pretty women". And then there's the whole social dynamic. If that's what all your friends do, and nobody does anything different, then that's what you do too. I suspect this force might be a little stronger for women than men, but then I'm a suspicious kind of guy.

Note on "Ms.": I don't like Ms., it has no bearing on it's pronunciation, for which I always say "Miz". Of course Mr. has no relation to it's pronunciation either, but it is an abbreviation for mister, which is pronounced just like it's spelled. Too late now, but maybe we should have used "sister" instead of miz for women, then it could have been abbreviated Sr. Oh, that one's already been taken. Never mind.