SINGAPORE: A 24-year-old man who said he looked better than the average person added that he had “it tough as well” because of his looks. In an anonymous post to popular confessions page NUSWhispers, the man said he needed to rant about his looks. He wrote that he did not deny that pretty privilege existed.
Body privilege or pretty privilege is a concept used to examine the economic, social, and political advantages or benefits made to men and women solely based on their physical appearance. He wrote that he was well over his National Service days and said that his skin was the type that never got tanned. Because of this, he said that his skin was “clean and white”. “Not only that, I do know that I look better than average although I don’t think I look good looking enough to be considered “Handsome”” the man wrote.
He added that people always mistook him to have come from Taiwan or Korea. Despite this, the man wrote: “But I am starting to feel my looks are a hinderance to my relationship life”. He said that girls would reject him because they would not think he was serious and was only looking to play the field. He added: “I tried tanning my skin and it doesn’t work at all. I cannot grow a beard, nor a mustache fits my face shape. I’m done bro, when guys ugly people call us “simp, desperate””. He then said that he did not know what girls wanted.
One netizen said: “Being pretty doesn’t mean you can rely entirely on your looks to get what you want. You have to build your personality/ character too”. Another commented: “They say it’s the inner that brings out the outer. Once you can find the inner peace, with yourself, that’s when people can accept your outer appearance”.
Read related: Woman complimented for her looks feels like a piece of meat
Earlier this year, a woman who said she was complimented for her looks all her life felt that “Having good looks is a curse”. In an anonymous post to popular confessions page NUSWhispers, the woman said that despite the compliments throughout life, she did not see in the mirror what others saw. She added that she was bullied by other girls in both Primary and Secondary school.
“When I reached the age when boys started to notice me, it got worse. I get prank calls from boys asking me to be their gf and their current gf would gang up with others to confront me and make my life hell. Once they even threw my school bag into the boys toilet, vandalized my desk, drew on my uniform. I was so afraid of going to school and couldn’t focus in class”, she added.
She said that it came to the point where she dreaded being approached by anyone, especially boys who wanted to get to know her. “When I thought those days were over, jc and uni aren’t better. I thought I made some friends only to overhear them telling others they just wanted to know what’s the fuss about me. Said I’m just some stupid flower pot plus other very mean and hurtful things about me. So basically they weren’t really my friends. I started to keep to myself even more”, she said. /TISG