Don’t let yourself be fooled: Beauty and looks can be deceiving

“What a strange illusion it is to suppose beauty is goodness.” Leo Tolstoy

Even if some people believe beauty is equal to goodness, in reality, it is not. This stereotype can be seen often in media and entertainment, especially in Disney movies.

In The Little Mermaid, the villain Ursula turns into a beautiful human, but she is evil and only acts in her own selfinterest. In Mean Girls and other stereotypical high school movies, there are always the pretty, popular people who

are actually complete jerks: They lie, backstab and gossip about other people.

On the other hand, the movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame shows the opposite. The main character, Quasimodo, is scary to look at, but he has a heart of gold and is very kind and helpful.

While these are all fictional movies, the stereotype they portray is very real. At best, the illusion of beauty equating goodness is a false stereotype, taking a small population and expanding it to include everyone who is beautiful, more than making the stereotype true. Even if one beautiful person is full of goodness, that does not mean every single beautiful person is full of goodness. They could be, but it is not a guarantee.

Besides movies, this stereotype is also seen in history. For instance, Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man, was very popular among the ladies. Presumably, he was considered handsome for the time, and this led many people to place their trust in him. He was selfish and dangerous — not at all filled with goodness as many believed and as the stereotype would imply. Rasputin’s influence on the Russian tsar and other royalty might have even led to their downfall and the Russian Revolution. So, although there are beautiful people who are good, it is not true that all beautiful people are, and it is a very strange illusion that many people believe in.

Society has associated beautiful people with kindness and trustworthiness, which draws people to them, but like many other stereotypes perpetuated by society, this one is not to be trusted.