Does my face look funny?

(graphic by Adele Palmquist).
(graphic by Adele Palmquist).

Judging appearances always starts at the face. It’s the first thing we like to analyze.

Is it weird? Is it pretty? Is it familiar? Is it funny? What facial aesthetics determine whether or not the face that you’re staring is considered a good-looking face?

What about when two different faces get together and they become a couple.

Do people view them as being compatible based on their personalities that emulate from the sidewalk or do their clothes match and their looks balance each other enough to confirm that yes, they look good together.

While the show is continuous with bringing up controversial subjects, Girls tackled on the sexual taboo of combining two people together, one who apparently was way “better looking” than the other.

The episode — which turned from a disagreement on the meaning of the word “sext” between Hannah (played by creator Lena Dunham) and her manager Ray into a two-day tryst between her and the handsome doctor, Joshua (Patrick Wilson)— caused much controversy in the press.

The issue is that, the interfacial relationship seemed too unlikely to ever happen in real life. Those who are classified as “hot” individuals are better than the average looking person. If one is exceedingly more attractive than the other, then the idea of this couple just does not work. The blame gets put on the person who isn’t seen as being as aesthetically pleasing as their significant other.

As a fellow “Funny Face” — somone who is beautiful, but is not considered it by society — these responses made me furious. I have been seen as cute, adorable or “interesting.” One time my friend said I would not get a guy I liked because I was not conventionally pretty.

So when this Ted Moseby look-a-like, who I thought was too good for me, said that I was attractive I, like Hannah, couldn’t believe it. In the 1957 Fred Astaire, Audrey Hepburn film Funny Face, Quality Magazine tells society to “Think Pink!”. Today’s Western culture, seen in part through the media, tells us to “Think Tall,” “Think Thin,” “Think Miranda Kerr.” Society internalizes and maintains these beauty ideals by going against those who do not fit in them.

Interfacial relationships are judged immediately. Instead of focusing on the balance and overall feeling the two have with each other, people just zone in on who looks better.

How does one who has a “funny” face land a date with someone who should be a model?

Although society may not see it, someone will notice something about you and find it intoxicating. See it for yourself first because understanding your external, as well as your internal beauty is important.

It brings confidence so when your Fred Astaire says he loves “your sunny, funny face” you won’t think of them as mad, because you know you are or will be someone’s Hepburn. Funny is beautiful. The social constructions are the only ugly thing in our culture.

While society may try to create an attractiveness hierarchy in your relationship, as we all do from time to time, remember there is something about you, both inside and out, that makes the other person want to hold your hand.

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