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Beauty Equals Goodness: Difference between revisions
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== Professional Wrestling ==
* [[All Japan
* Maybe a bit subverted with [[TNA]] Wrestling's Knockouts division; everyone is pretty (in some way), regardless of whether they are good, bad, or [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]]. Even Awesome Kong, the big bad black Japanese wrestler, has become a babyface and fan favorite.
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* In Spanish, "to be" can be translated as two different verbs (ser and estar) "ser buena" (to be good) means to be a good/nice person, and "estar buena" (literally translated also: "to be good") means being physically attractive (although usually "hot" more than "beautiful"). This might be because ser means "usually to be a certain way" whereas estar draws its distinction in definition from meaning something more like "to be a certain way which is not so usual." In other words, "ser buena" most literally means "to be good as a regular thing" whereas the most literal translation for "estar buena" could be "to be good for the moment" and not necessarily as a regular thing. This suggests that Spanish-speaking cultures are probably at least somewhat aware of beauty's tendency to be fleeting and superficial, and have therefore linked it to temporary and superficial goodness in their language. The connection--however tenuous--between being physically attractive and being morally upright is still there, however.
* The [[wikipedia:Halo effect|Halo effect]] is a documented psychological phenomenon wherein people's judgment on another person's traits spills over to other (unrelated) traits. So the perception is that beautiful = good/competent, ugly = bad/incompetent, further proof that life is indeed unfair.
* The 1960 US presidential election debates were the first to be televised. Polls showed that those who watched the debate on television thought the handsome [[John F. Kennedy]] had won the debate, while those who listened on the radio thought the sweaty, uncomfortable looking [[Richard Nixon]] had won. Of course, TV being a relatively emergent technology that was only just starting to be adapted at the time could have resulted in differences in the demographics of television owners and non-television owners. And, of course, while it might be a poor reason to not vote for someone because they look like a slightly-crazed, paranoid, crook, the fact that Nixon in fact turned out to be a slightly-crazed, paranoid, crook is of no little relevance.
** Even more interesting: While Kennedy was the president who brought the US military into [[The Vietnam War]] full-force (before then, we were supplying troops but it was not an official war), the less-attractive [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] has tended to receive the lion's share of the blame for the conflict. Nixon was the one who eventually pulled us out, but this is rarely mentioned, mainly due to A. His initial escalation of the fighting and B. He's friggin' [[Richard Nixon]].
* The [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greeks]] took this very, ''very'' seriously. ''Kaloi k'agathoi'' ("the beautiful and good ones") was what Greek aristocrats called themselves. To be beautiful was considered a gift from the gods and was a sign of their favor. This allowed good-looking Greeks to [[Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful|get away with things just because they were beautiful]], and occasionally hurt ugly people when accused of a crime. For instance:
** Phryne, an Athenian [[High Class Call Girl|courtesan]] known for her beauty, was once accused of a form of blasphemy. At trial, her defense consisted, at least in part, of stripping off her clothes and saying to the (all-male) jury: "Would you dare destroy ''this''?" She was acquitted.
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** ''[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/asbjornsenmoe/threeaunts.html The Three Aunts]'' is another variant.
* There are countless fairy tales where the protagonist is given vital aid on their quests by dwarves, crones, and sometimes even giant, disembodied heads.
* In the story of "[[Tatterhood]]", the eponymous heroine is filthy and dresses in rags while wearing a goat. Her sister is traditionally beautiful, but is a [[
* There is a fairy tale where a girl is [[So Beautiful It's a Curse]] and is harassed by many attractive, wealthy men... one of whom is the Devil himself. When she refuses him, the Devil spitefully steals her beauty from her, leaving her ugly and misshapen. Years later, he decides to see what happened to the girl, and is shocked to find that her new ugliness drove away all her unwanted suitors, leaving her [[Happily Married]] to an ugly but goodhearted [[Dogged Nice Guy]].
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** The reasons that the Sisters of Battle don't look as good as their tabletop models are scarring, tattoos, weight, missing body parts, and them not giving a damn about personal appearance.
** "Though there was no disguising his inhumanity [...] there was the overgrown gigantism of the face, that particular characteristic of the Astartes, almost equine". That's Captain Loken, the definitive Good Guy of the first ''[[Horus Heresy]]'' book, [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''Horus Rising''. Also, the book gives us an idea how much Space Marines stink after some time in their powered armor. On the other hand, most Primarchs, who are even taller than Marines, are godlike beautiful.
** An even harder subversion in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'': See that really hot, half-naked elf woman? She's the Dark Elf Hag Witch who kills children and bathes in their blood. That fat frog guarded by the huge, frightening lizards she's fighting? The frog's a Slann Mage-Priest, and those lizards are Temple Guards, among the noblest soldiers in the world.
** Played straight to the point of absurdity however with the literal [[Always Chaotic Evil]] servants of [[The Corruption|Chaos]], who have an ''explicit rule'' that the more they devote themselves to Chaos the more mind-warpingly horrific they become, with the final fate of any Chaos follower being either a gibbering Chaos Spawn with more limbs than IQ points or a [[One-Winged Angel|massive Daemon Prince]] with dominion over their own slice of hell.
** And subverted again with followers of Slaanesh, who are described as [[Ugly Cute|Disturbingly beautiful]] at worst. The ability of the artists and modelers to convey this, however, varies due to individual skill and decency laws.
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