Picture this: your car has a few dings in it, a few small scratches here and there, and there’s a small dent that nobody can really see. But everything on the inside of the car works, and all the important parts (like the engine) still work like they did the day you bought the car. Do you buy a new car or not?

Most people wouldn’t buy a new car if their old one has a few cosmetic damages, but is running fine, and nobody would judge them negativly about it.

Now picture this: you’ve found somebody that you enjoy spending time with. They make you laugh with the smallest joke and make you feel better when you are sad. When you are with them, or even just talking on the phone with them, time seems to stand still, and you don’t want to say goodbye. But there is something cosmetically wrong. They have a limp, wear glasses, have a weight problem. Do you dump them, even though they are “beautiful and wonderful on the inside”?

Unfortunatly, most people would, not because they don’t like the physical person, but because they are afraid of what their friends will say, if not to them, then behind their back.

Over the past 10 years or so, society as a whole has shifted focus on what matters most from how a thing works, acts, thinks, etc. (the inside), to how it looks (the outside). A lot of people will tell others to “not judge a book by its cover”, but how many of those same people will then judge something by how it looks?

I think that stereotyping has complicated this issue as well. Not all African-Americans like fried chicken. Not all Irish are drunks. Not all blondes are stupid. The list goes on and on.

What can be done to stop this? For one, the media needs to stop putting so much attention on celebrities. Maybe then people would stop wanting to look like them.

I want to hear your comments. What can we do as a nation to end stereotyping and people judging others by, and basing their decisions on, how they look?