Objectification has been happening ever since women and men existed. Perfection is something humans have idolized and admired for a long time. Gods and godesses were drawn to be attractive and charismatic.
If the universe rewards intelligence over stupidity, why is rewarding beauty over ugliness a problem?
There is also this argument that.. let people have their circus. Extreme beauty and intelligence are something people can look at and admire for a weekend as a form of escape. But this doesn't mean people leave their partners or talk shit to their sisters "why don't you look like her", etc.
I guess my take is missing the problem which is that young adults set false expectation of their partners and this causes problem for them later in their life. But this feels like arguing we should shut down all forms of adult entertainment because the kids will get corrupted.
rewarding beauty is fine. rewarding beauty in such a way that it has an impact—not only measurable, but significant—against the mental health of the public is not fine.
Whether we reward it or not, as long as there is someone people can compare themselves to, it's going to affect their mental health. Social media itself is a beauty competition, and the reward is attention. We tend to compare up, not down, so it doesn't really matter how beautiful or rich someone is—there's always someone doing even better who makes us feel insufficient.
rewarding intelligence is fine. rewarding intelligence in such a way that it has an impact—not only measurable, but significant—against the mental health of the public is not fine.
Let's stop this malicious practice of giving Nobel prizes!