ℬ𝒶𝓃𝓀𝓈 𝓉𝒽ℯ 𝒢𝓇ℯ𝒶𝓉 🜲

Not to be the annoying woke friend but this reminds me of the discussion of Ethics vs Aesthetics in a course I took in 300 level, first semester. We discussed how easily aesthetic judgments bleed into ethical judgments. We often unconsciously attach moral qualities to physical appearance. Pretty privilege is partly rooted in this. When someone fits our standards of attractiveness, we are more inclined to perceive them as trustworthy and innocent. Their flaws become quirks. Their mistakes become understandable. We even extend them the benefit of the doubt. But when someone falls outside those standards, it reverses. We are more likely to read their appearance as evidence of negative character: threatening, dishonest, aggressive, or simply "bad". The person hasn't done anything to establish those qualities; but we have projected onto them because of their appearance. The comments under this man's picture might be seen as cruise but it's a cognitive bias with real social consequences. People are joking about him being a criminal simply because of how he looks. Simply put, we've collectively accepted the idea that certain faces look criminal. The halo effect makes us generalise positive qualities from one favourable characteristic, while the reverse happens when a person doesn't meet our aesthetic expectations. That was how Jeremy Meeks' mugshot went viral and quickly his appearance became part of his public narrative. His attractiveness was treated as noteworthy enough to transform how people perceived him, eventually opening doors into modelling and celebrity culture.