LwEi’s World

Sat through the screening of the abovementioned movie in recent times, and was left pondering over the surreal concept of a 200-pound beauty. It’s inexplicable that such a statistical monstrosity could be deemed aesthetically pleasing.

But then again, it may not be totally implausible either. A 2.25m tall monstrosi… I  mean lady weighing 200 pounds would yield a BMI of around 18.0 which is roughly that of a typical 1.70m / 50.0kg runway model. Another possible situation is that her bones are laced with adamantium a la Wolverine, which has approximately 3.14 times the density of the typical humanoid bone, thereby effectively increasing her actual weight by around 2.07 times, before which would also yield a svelte-implying BMI of around 17.2 given a height of 1.60m.

All figures above are given to 3 significant figures, by the way.

There were some moments in the movie which struck me as especially debatable, such as the awkward gait / obvious insecurity of the post-surgery Hanna in a particular clubbing scene. Linking it with Gwyneth Paltrow’s past complaints about being given sub-par service at a New York nightclub whilst wearing her Shallow Hal fat-suit, one wonders if less attractive individuals are discriminated against and hence develop insecurity issues as a result.

For the former, a recent Straits Times article confirmed the hypothesis, an excerpt stating that similar resumes with / without makeover shots attached received significantly different number of favourable replies. Add that to past articles on verdicts of juries being more lenient to comparatively attractive criminals, as well as those stating that individuals ranked as being more attractive by their peers command higher salaries, and it is perceptible to most that looks, however superficial it sounds, are prone to discrimination.

Pertaining to insecurity issues, it is purely up to the individual’s perceived importance on the various factors determining success and hence a sense of self-value, as well as his/her levels of achievement in these areas. However, it is plausible that unconscious discrimination based on looks by individuals surrounding oneself also contributes to this, however insignificant.

Picture the very common scenario of guys hitting on the hottest gals in clubs without regard for the latter’s less attractive female friends. I can imagine the self-esteem of those pathe… I mean less noticeable ladies after countless such encounters. Well, I do know male friends who do otherwise, but then again it’s less of a conscious choice than a ploy to eventually ingratiate themselves to again, the hottest ladies.

Was just browsing through stevenlim.net (yes he’s the yellow brief guy on SI) after being reminded of it again via an article in Digital Life. Went through the hilarious BHB clips once again and his blog entries (one of which interestingly deemed the ambience at Suntec KFC romantic). He’s the classic example of a person whose self-esteem ballooned after his successful weight-gaining programme and Lasik surgery and whatever looks-enhancing procedure. Apparently people started treating him differently after that, leading to him writing self-help books, entering SI, setting up a self-named website proclaiming his omnipotence and such.

I should think that confidence and improved self-esteem stemming from an improvement in appearance alone is far from lasting. Losing a considerable 8kgs in 2 weeks aside from a change in hairstyle and a wardrobe upheaval a year back did wonders to my approach to various situations positively, but I periodically had doubts about myself after the initial high wore off. My perfectionist nature simply refused to allow me to feel good about myself for long.

I seriously doubt I’d ever go through it willingly without the appropriate emotional stimulus again though. Breakfast: noodle soup. Lunch: fruit. Tea: instant soup. Dinner: boiled/steamed meat and veggies. Add that to a gruelling exercise regime of exercises before and after sleep, an additional hour of intensive swimming before lunch and another hour of gym before dinner. Pure hell indeed. Think it’s perfectly disputable that my meteoric rise in self-esteem could be attributed more to the fact that I actually kept it up for 3 weeks as compared to the tremendous improvement in my physical appearance.

But enough about the aesthetic aspect of life.