I love your Metropolitan Mama website/blog. This is my fourth visit and your content, style, completeness, and ease of use represent an exemplary standard that other blogs could learn from. Your readers who post comments make me smile. They seem to be incredibly thoughtful, respecting, and kind, which express a wonderful breath of fresh air nowadays in the world of blogs.

Regarding your post on May 10, 2008, (titled, “3 Books to Read to Improve Your “Smarts”), the comments posted, when considered individually and collectively, are be right-on-target. These comments express well the variety of thoughts and perspectives regarding the reality that I focus on in my book, “LOOKS: Why They Matter More Than You Ever Imagined.” The comments also present quite well the discomfort aligned with “physical attractiveness phenomenon.”

Sometimes termed lookism, physical attractiveness phenomenon encompasses the reality that people behave toward individuals in ways strongly biased by their physical attractiveness. The bias strongly favors higher physical attractiveness and disfavors lower physical attractiveness. This phenomenon is powerful, pervasive, and often unrecognized or denied; despite as I state in this book, the impact of a person’s good looks run literally from cradle to grave. Good looks and not-so-good looks—be they defined by words of beauty, handsomeness, or, at a child’s age, cuteness—impact every individual.

Physical attractiveness phenomenon is a topic that I have studied formally for more than 30 years. And, I believe “beauty is ugly” or, at the least, “beauty can be ugly.” Society and individuals within society place entirely too much importance on a person’s physical attractiveness. What follows, are the favorable and not-so-favor consequences stated in my above paragraph. Then what follows, includes increasing number of individuals with unrealistic pursuits that can consume more time, effort, and money than a person can afford.

Children and their parents are not immune to physical attractiveness phenomenon. Not only do adults—parents and non-parents—place increasing importance on their own good looks, they also do so concerning the looks of their children. Outside our home, the physical attractiveness, or cuteness, of our children influences different treatment from other children, teachers, and medical personnel.

Accordingly, the LOOKS book presents substantial material very much in-line with the parenting genre of Metropolitan Mama. I hope you and the readers of your blog won’t take offense at my saying so, but, two chapters particularly pertinent to children are:

• Chapter 3, titled: “As the Twig Is Bent: How Physical Attractiveness Affects Family Dynamics – What Smart Parents Know (or Should Know) about Physical Attractiveness”

• Chapter 4, titled: “Readin’, ‘Ritin’, ‘Rithmetic, ‘n’ Ridicule – How Physical Attractiveness Influences Teachers, Students, Success, Failure, and the Learning Experience” (Chapter 4).

Maybe “tooting my own horn entirely too much here,” I will say that in addition to my work concerning physical attractiveness in my LOOKS book, further experiences and recognitions specific to my work concerning children include:

• Author of a 44-page chapter titled “Physical Attractiveness and Child Development” published in Advances in Clinical Child Psychology, 11th Annual Volume (under the editorship of the University of Georgia medical school).

• Citations of my professional name by other researchers in education and medical scholarly journals such as Childhood Education, The Cleft Palate Journal, and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery; as well as diverse media ranging from WebMD to the Harvard Law Review.

• Long ago, I held an executive position with CBS Television Network in their primetime programming that included research concerning children and related television network programming.

Best wishes, Gordon

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Dr. Gordon Patzer
author of, “Looks: Why They Matter More Than You Ever Imagined”
http://www.GordonPatzer.com