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Is beauty alone a justification for survival?

Does it make a thing worth more simply because it is there?

Does a cute endangered species draw more attention than an ugly one and hence have a better chance of survival because they just happen to be evolved to fit our astetics?

Of course not . If you're talking about plants or animals . Cuteness gets you mates , no matter what my idealist part sais .

well... i think that you have a good point there... I mean, what for would you give a few $ for saving for example tigers, or a species of an ugly bug, or something like that...

and it is that in the end that is what I am on about... people who wouldn't do a thing but when exposed to a cute thing buckle under.... you see it notibly in the enviormental movement in some cases it is so bad that you can't seperate the animal from their public image.... dolphins for instance gang rape and so on but you never hear of it, pandas are the poster child of this it is almost impossible to see just the animal for what it is bcause of the influence of public pre-processing.

Very good point.
I don't think it should be that way but deep down I think, cutness overules exsistance.

Hmm, I see what you're saying. It's a good point, but no I don't think so.

well I think the trick is that image is important and one must be aware of it and thet it influences ones decisions, like any astetic.

The danger of it is that it is subtile and easy to ignore.

one can easly miss the reality of a situation because of a pretty thing.

if they wamt a skin for a wall no it would be worse they would kill the more cuter animals then the ugly

Of course cuteness prevails! We are extremely shallow beings, and seeing as how we can pretty well make or break the chances of ANY species surviving, yes, we focus on the cute ones.

beauty is a very important thing in society and yes i think if an endagered animal is cuter it will have a greater chance of survival then if it were ugly, unfortunatly.

Society has molded the image of beauty in to what they want the public to believe is the perfect essence(sp) of beauty.Think there was aperson in history who tried claim there was only one perfect imsge,hmm i think his name was HITLER.Animals use it for mating and survival and if anything among animals many are or becoming extinct because of their beauty.

Interesting idea...I have a headache now... so I won't be able to answer that well. I'll just reply again later, lol. ^.^

i really dont think "cuteness" has anything to do with survival. beauty is to be judged by each person indiviually, and not everyone feels the same way about beauty.

ive never seen this 'world' everybody so fondly talks about cause ive never left this hellhole of a redneck central, but everything is controled the so called 'hot' or 'cute' people. thats why i kick their asses when im pissed, theyre to stupid to realize the pain. but my class isnt much like that; the class of the zodiac ram.

Beauty is not a reason for survival, but becuase of the world as it is today it is an important factor. Shamefully

damn right ghawk!

Looks are relied on too heavily in the worlds society... But what, infact is beauty?... In some tribes, heavy women are found more atractive, and here, we have girls starving themselves to get a date... I dont get the way this world works...

well mordes..yet another of our coffee conversations brought to the rest of the world...
heheh
I have one thing to say about saving cuteness over ugly....hoe many people protest the seal hunt.....while black rhinos have almost become extinct...
and most people have no clue about the rhino

Mordes...man of intelligent conversation...your forum title threw me for a loop.

However, yes EVERYTHING is judged by it's worth in cuteness, sexiness, beauty.

Example.

If I were to give money to a charity trying to save cockroaches and stinkbugs, I must have been drunk. A butterfly or some bug of beauty on the other hand would get my attention.

I work in a bar. I waitress. I'm pudgy and have always been considered "cute" when i would prefer to be sexy. My tips depend on my male customers view of women. The ones that like me for my personality often tip better than the ones who think I'm ugly or not anorexic (sp) looking enough. then the older ones, who realize that the sexier the woman, the less likely she would consider being your wife as opposed to a one-night-stand, tip better because they realize that I realize this too.

Another thing, Bush looks like a monkey, whereas Kerry looks like that annoying fucking principle you had when you were in Junior High, or a dead horse, your pick. Monkey...
Dead horse...
Monkey...

I'll vote for the "cute" little monkey!
(Which I didn't by the way)
So there is another example of "beauty", politics are always ugly so...
In conclusion to my boring the hell out of everyone, We are judged on our beauty as well as every other living thing on this planet (even some dead ones).
This shouldn't be a shock to anyone

didn't think this one should be three pages back.

Lets face it, cute sells! When they ask for money to feed the hungry, what do they show? Children in dirty streets! Sympathy and cute are their tools to tug at your heart to make you fork over the cash. I am so sick of it all! They are using anything or anyone to get what they want. It is just plain wrong!

nah! don't wanna be in this one!

the sute littel girl in pink is better then the one who is ugly? sorry for this but sometime i really feel so called"Cult of cuteness" this is a huge problem.

I think unfourtunitly, everything in life relies on your apperance. CVute girls get more attention, just as cute guys and cute animals.

Appearance has a huge bearing on decisions mainly because as humans, we were not blessed with x-ray vision. The first thing we see is physical appearance. If it aesthetically pleasing then we are more likely to want to approach it. Eye sores really aren't pleasing. We tend to stay away from them. It's a fact of life.

yeah cute things are more likely to die cause we stuff them and put them on our walls or as statues in the living room.

Yep. Natural selection, artificial selection...gah its a biology thing. about the species, i mean. its called..favorable variations or soemthing like that. nerd, i am.
~morgana~

I agree with Ettrikin

ok here's another noodle baker...

now that we've more or less decided that judgeing by appearances is generally wrong there is a direct genetic preference built into people for what they like in creatures and mates....

humans prefer symmetrical faces from birth and have this inately worked into them.... now a lot of diseases wreck this symmetry and hence judgeing by beauty is a way to determine how healthy your mate is and by happen stance how healthy your children are going to be.....

now if you truely care about how your offspring are going to be like wouldn't you only pick the most beautiful of the beautiful if you could acheive it....

and wouldn't choosing anything else be akin to neglect?

Yes I would pick the best if I had the possibility.Let's not be fake,if we wanted to buy a puppy for example, everyone would choose a cute one!

Exactly.....

I bring this up not because the entire process of choosing is evil in-fact I bet the over all effects are good....

But hyperattenuating this natural desire til no one can meet up to any of the standards is killing people litterally.....

I think it's a 50/50 thing.
Sometimes being beautiful gets you what you want, but sometimes it gets you what you don't want. Attention can be good, but there is negative attention, and that's where survival of the fittest comes in. Brains and braun are more important when the sh!t hits the fan.
[But there's nothing more glorious than having it all!!] ;)

cuteness does have its advantages as well as its downfalls. it can save ya or it can get ya killed

i would much rather save something that is gonna appeal to me then something i wouldnt ever wanna see in my hole life...

The drive in American society to conform to what we see as appealling is a tragedy. Young girls starve themselves to death in order to meet this quocient.(sp) I, myself when I was a child was hung up on this idea of trying to be the ideal. I have a birth defect in my face that makes this impossible. For a very long time in my teen years, I was ostrasized and devistated because of it. Now, i know I have a good heart and that's all that matters....but society's obsession whith perfect beauty can be harmful on so many levels....

Cuteness may appear to beautiful, but most are just really ugly on the inside.

hmmm well I think what is considered attractive has been artificially shifted by us....well the general media..not "us"
and this has caused a great many problems....then again...when lifespans were in the three dacade plus range......very young girls were marriageable and therefore that is part of what we may find attractive in that ages appearance.....budding beauty is I believe the reference....it is also the age where pheremone production rises...mid puberty..nature says this is an acceptable age and body stage to be ready for procreation....it is culture that has gone against this.........something to think on

I think that underneath everyone trying to make themselves sound better as people by saying "its personality that counts" they all know that they look at the person first, and everyone judges that. Now, whether or not ur a good person depends on how you ACT on that judgement in your head. You can let it pass and accept it, or you can point and laugh. Now i believe that obese people are nice, but they can't take care of themselves if they became this way. People who are obese because of family heritage cannot help it yes, but they can try to. They are the most judged...I would pick someone beautifully healthy. And i have, so i have nothing more to say.
~morgana~

So far I have loved most of the responces......

boiled down it is

looks matter but they aren't the only thing that matters we are human beings and we want more than that....

We deserve more than that......

It's good....

As peopple will have to keep on striving to become more and better and that is a core thing to being human...

Wishing to become more.....

This is an awesome post to read.. my personal two cents are yes.. a creatures existance is measured by its appearance.. and not for its lack of worth but for the impression it may give to others

Sadly, it be true. With almost everything too.

Stupid Humanity...

did you forget that it not looks it brains

I think you have a point. But personally, I believe all beings, animal, plant, mineral, deserves preservation. Somethings may not be cute, but they are certainly majestic. The Elephant is a prime example of that, although I personally think they are beautiful creatures. But the fact still remains that some people still hunt this intensly emotional creatures and for what? Their ivory, a comodity upon which man has placed a high price. The same goes for fur, people still buy mink coats as a status symbol at the expense of the creature who grew so to speak. I think that the current world in which we live in places way too much emphisis on looks, on body shape and on what we do.
I am what I am, not what you want to be, I live by this and it makes life so much easier, and even more interesting at times. I do not belong to cult of cuteness, I do not see my self as being pretty, and I don't try to.
Sorry, think I lost your point there somewhere along the line, but then, hey, you get that.

*throws humanity in a boiling pan
*eats it along with his breakfast

Cuteness[money] makes the world go round?

Beauty alone is a justification for an illusion of a seemingly false status level... the problem is, this status level is just as real and poignant in its effect as any other.

I would not define it as vital for survival, but vital for some types of survival.

However, some people may believe that they cannot live without their mobile phone.

...something to think about...

i dont think the being cute is going to increase ur chance of survial, it increases the chance of getting laid.

Darkslave which increases your genes propogation in the gene pool hence survival....

And even on a simpler level would you help a pretty or an ugly person first....

The facination with this for me is that people mostly agree that getting something for nothing is wrong but is beauty really nothing?

I think in today's world people only depend on money and beauty. Nothing more. REAL love has disappeared from Earth's existence...

Mordes, I persoanlly think that in that instance beauty yes over powers a shallow individual, but it isnt the physical attributes of a being that forces them to stay alive it is the will to live, or the fear of dieing whatever individual it is. So a animal isnt beautiful that doesnt mean that it doesnt have a will to live to survive to strive for something greater. Just because the so called "beautiful people" get everything handed to them doesnt mean they will survive because in time their beauty will die and what will they be left with? thousands of dollars in plastic surgery bills and no idea of how to fend for themselves. I personally dont care if someone is pretty or ugly i will help anyone if they ask me to and they arent assholes.

hmmm...ive never thought about that before....to most people that is true....but to me its not!....

I got to know my boyfriend online. I fell in love with his charming attitude and humane approach to life. When I met him, I fell in love with his looks too.
However, I had seen him before, and I was previously aware of his existance. I did not go out of my way then to approach him and was not attracted to him.
Therefore, for me looks are a second or third to the real person.

as to helping an attractive person before an unattractive person....I tend to help whomever needs help....in the order said help is required....ie:triage style
but then again that is my first aid training coming into action

A lot say looks don't matter, but are they really they honest?
For example:Whenever I liked a guy and he didn't like me physically he didn't even bothered talking to me, so yeah looks do matter, also would you buy a drink to an ugly lady?Or would you talk to her?Whenever being at a bar or club and there are 50 people, you go to talk to someone who is pretty not who is ugly,no one would care the personality.And if you meet an intelligent girl but ugly and a girl who is pretty but stupid who would you pick?Be honest.

Ok beauty is the eye of the beholder but nowadays media made a clear picture of who is ugly and who is pretty.

Money and beauty make go round the world I agree.For example if you watch tv you'll notice that it is full of attractive women, no one cares if they are intelligent or have a nice personality they're chosen in base of how they look.

As to answer your question I would choose to help the one that most needs help no matter how cute or ugly that person is.

of course cuteness is a means of survival otherwise why plastic surgery if ppl didnt botox steroid pump or suck plastic into or out of place that ppl dont look at because it sags well how many right now would be non existant in a corner cause im fat ugly saggy blah blah blah so yes it does beauty opens doors or cuteness ugly walks into them

Most people only talk to the "beautiful/hot/sexy/cute" people. And they ignore the "ugly" ones. It is like the good looking peopl ehave great attidues...they won't use you..but they will. They usually do. "Ugly" people are nicer/sweeter than most people. I guess it is because of beinmg neglected or isolated....idk

Yes, we're programmed to look for symmetry and other features as signs of health, but I think that it's obvious that our preferences are not always controlled by the relationship between appearance and reproductive fitness.

If this were the case, then the anorexic look that is idealized by many now would never be so desirable. Slender hips would never be "in"

We are capable of adjusting our preferences based on logic. Medical advances have made it so that even people who are funny-looking, fat, skinny, asymmetrical, of slim-hipped have a pretty good chance of surviving and successfully reproducing...

Leaving us free to use other basis for selection. For instance, an attractive symmetrical person still may choose an unattractive asymmetrical mate without having to feel as though they are neglecting their future offspring...if this mate has other qualities that will make it a good parent.
The way society is right now, a deformed person with high intelligence and a strong sense of loyalty could be a better choice in fact. Since strange looking people still have a decent lifespan and reproductive capacity not, it's more important to find someone who will be able to support the family financially/emotionally and who will stay with the family to help raise the children.

As far as the first question that was posed goes...I dont know. I guess I have to agree that cute animals get more press..but I think that in the general public response, it's the press and not the cuteness that gets people. I'm thinking of manatees right now...which are quite hideous, but for a time, I remember all of my friends "adopted" them and were sending money to support their protection.
I think that if an ugly bug were hyped up enough as endangered and important, the general public would get the idea and support it. I mean...I also remember that darter snail business. It's possible. In general it just seems that people dont care about any endangered animals for that long...fad environmentalism

cute = Vapid

I agree with ghawk shame

Yeah, good point. People tend to talk more to people who are cute or hot than if they are ugly and stuff liek that, and yiis for the endangered species thing hehe, you*re right lol I*d definately help more by like donating money to help save pandas or something but id never help for like a praying mantis or something lol hehe they*re so ugly but haha yeah so people really do pay more attention to something they find cute.