SciFest08: Did Your Mom Lie? Does it Matter if You're Ugly?

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I'm reporting live, once again, from St. Louis' SciFest 08, and things are getting ugly. Well, kind-of. According to Nichola Rumsey, PhD and Dr. Martin Persson, we should be shifting from our current obsession with celeb-like bodies and embrace more diverse appearances.

It's considered "fact" by the masses that better looking people are happier, get better jobs, have advantages in education and even get out of more tickets when they're caught by the police, but that isn't completely true. It's essentially folklore that advertisers and the editor of Vogue have created.

These days, those of us in Western Civilization are striving more and more to look like Ken and Barbie. So much so that even Ken and Barbie can't keep up. He keeps getting more muscular and enhanced in "certain areas," while she gets blonder, skinier, and...you know. In actuality, it's almost physically impossible to hold your body to these standards. One in every 100,000 women is naturally proportional to the plastic bimbo, so where does that leave the other 99,999 of us? Victims of the media.

Five seconds after flipping open a fashion magazine, you're bombarded with ads promoting plastic surgery. Rumsey pointed out that they make it seem like Botox will help you land a sexy, smart significant other in a tuxedo/short cocktail dress, all because you got your face stabbed with this age-freezing elixir. Maybe that's why there has been a 465-percent increase in plastic surgery in the past decade. But it just aint so; Botox doesn't equal a happy ending.

Click on the Video tab to see an example of what Rumsey and Persson were talking about. It really, really surprised me.

It's become a phenomenon that's known as the cult of the celebrity. Kids, teens and adults of all ages are using actors, models and athletes as role models, and with such unrealistic ideals to begin with, it's no wonder that everyone's self esteem is going downhill.

In another example that the presenters used, they created a series of avatars (realistic computer generated images of people) and submitted their head shots to a modeling agency. Of the 16 models that the agency invited back for the job, 14 of them were avatars. What this means is hugely significant; modeling agencies are trying too hard to present a perfect body image to American culture. So perfect in fact, that this perfect body doesn't even exist.

Beauty isn't in the eye of the beholder, it's in the eye of what the media tells the beholder it should be. So have a cookie, drink a non-diet soda, hold your head a little higher and stop trying to look like Kate Moss.

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