Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?

Not according to this online dating site. On BeautifulPeople.com, beauty is in the eye of its already existing 700,000 members. That’s right, if you want to join the popular dating site, you have to submit pictures of yourself, and the members must vote you in, based on how beautiful THEY think you are. If denied (or kicked out), you’re sent an email that basically says “sorry you’re ugly” and given a number to a hotline where you can chat with a…grief counselor?

However ridiculous this may sound, it’s all entirely true. The nature under which this site operates, though, really got me thinking all about the laws of attraction. As we know, the standard of beauty is defined by the society in which we live. (In the U.S., we tend to value those that are financially stable, fit and apparently living a wholesome lifestyle, right? At least, that’s what the media tells us.) But what really attracts one individual to another? Read More »

So another Miss America pageant has come and gone without anyone really noticing.

Maybe it’s because we have other fantastic outlets to judge people, such as, say, Rock of Love, I Love New York, and the classic and oh-so-classy Flavor of Love (I’m detecting a “love” theme here, VH1).

Unpredictability is what sells, any idiot can see that. So in order to boost ratings, TLC made its own reality show about this year’s Miss America contestents, Miss America: Reality Check, which shows us that shockingly, some of these girls aren’t so bright.

I mean, that’s surprising, right? A not smart hot girl. Wow. And isn’t it just a little humorous that they can’t even bother to be creative with a title to try and pull viewers?

Reality Check is a little too formulaic for the typical American audience. We get it already. 50 Barbies prance around in eveningwear and bikinis, trying to show us that their baton-twirling or vocal stylings can change the world. They get narrowed down, the 4 prettiest, blondest Southern girls stay on and Texas always wins. Those of us who live in the North ponder what our lives could have been had we been born to drawl and drink sweet tea, and then quickly remember that it’s kind of like a foreign country and snap out of it.

This year’s winner was Miss Michigan, Kristen Haglund. That’s really the only thing I heard and remotely cared about. Finally, some good representation from the mitten… or is it? Read More »