Lookism (as much as I hate -ism terminology)

A proud parent shows you a picture of the offspring holding an Honor Roll Certificate, a diploma, or a degree.  If your response is about the physical attractiveness of the kid, you are the person I'm going to be ranting about.

I see it a lot on social media and it makes my blood boil. There are times when a comment on one's looks is quite appropriate, but the proper response to this sort of thing is "Good job" or "Way to go."  Even "Looking good" might work, as it can be interpreted as "You have a bright future".  But if I win the Nobel Peace Prize and you can only focus on what I look like, you need to just go away. I was, in my youth, a passably attractive woman, but that got me nothing positive.  What I've accomplished in my life, I have done through my brains and my heart.

I did not get a diploma or an AAS by posing in a bikini.  People who need help with school work, or just research in general, don't contact me because they want to look at me.  My nephew did not move me into his house to help raise his son because I'm so pretty.  I do not get rescued from the roadside when my car breaks down because I'm sexy.  

Then there's the fat-shaming and the skinny-shaming.  Unless a person's weight is a health issue, it does not matter.  I'm fat, but if making fun of skinny girls makes me feel better about myself, that's a problem.  Fat or Skinny, you can be beautiful. If it matters.

Either way, if you had to be stranded on a deserted island with a hateful, stupid person or a kind, bright one... would their looks matter?  "I don't have much, but I've got cute kids" tells me nothing that impresses me.  I have helped raise many kids, and I will boast to you about what good people they are or how smart they are.  If they are good-looking, that might come up.  Eventually.

If all you or your kids can accomplish is being ornamental, I pity you and them.  But try to make me or mine be nothing but an ornament, we're gonna tangle.  And I have a very wide definition of "me or mine".  It might well include some of you and yours.