According to an article in CNN last week Katherine Harris, a local bay area politician has been a little upset that some periodicals have been altering her image in their publications to make her seem a little more haggard or just less attractive to sway public opinion. This is not a political statement on my part, I only want to point out, as the article does, that this kind of slander is probably more common than we realize. And it probably happens in both pro and con directions.

We as a society are very biased by physical appearance. It was several months ago that another supervisor at my work was relating the story of a complaintant and in the story he said something to the effect that she (the complaintant) was describing her mistreatment. She said, “… and I am a very attractive woman. I wouldn’t like to see how they are treating other people.”

This supervisor was almost offended that she said something this blatant and almost conceited this but it came as absolutely no shock to me. From my experience this is how the world works. beautiful people have less obstacles set in their way, beautiful people get preferential treatment everywhere.

Go sit in a coffee shop or a restaurant and watch how people interact with better looking (read: more attractive) people. This permeates society. I only give one example here but go out and people watch, observe the behavior patterns. Watch yourself when you interact with others become cognizant of how you behave and conduct yourself.

This is real stuff and I’m not even sure that a heightened awareness can curb this effect. But here’s trying.

Be excellent to each other.

CNN.com – Harris: Papers doctored makeup in photos – Aug 4, 2005