Beautiful People

Airbrushed faces peer out from glossy magazine pages in waiting rooms and on news stands. Television shows and movies cast supermodels to play "the girl next door." Although they claim to be "ordinary," these people are far from average. Let's face it ... Not everyone has a personal trainer, chef and assistant. Nor does the "average" person have the financial resources to even contemplate such luxuries. The "average" person does not dine on caviar and champagne or dress in designer fashions. The average person, although likely deserving of more than his bank account will allow, lives on a budget.

However, superficiality has invaded. tries to and sometimes succeeds in overtaking the average person's life. Obsession with celebrities and their extravagant lifestyles is unhealthy. Possibly more unhealthy are Americans' unwarranted judgement of others.

Everyone is supposedly searching for his/her perfect match or soul mate. With peoples' reliance on technology continuing to exponentially increase, single people are trying creative ways to search for their "matches." Websites such as eharmony.com and match.com, provide many people with the opportunity to fit dating into hectic lives that are inconducive to meeting new people.

People create profiles, list their likes and dislikes, and of course post photographs of themselves. As the old saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words," and it is probable that many online daters are judged on appearance before the written contents of their profiles. Although this may seem unfair, it is important to remember that people are attracted to different things in a potential partner. Just because one person dislikes someone's profile picture doesn't mean that another user won't fall head-over-heels in love at the sight of the same picture.

However, a new dating website has taken online superficiality to a new level. BeautifulPeople.com is "an exclusively beautiful community, founded for the purpose of creating personal and professional relationships."

But, how does one gain entry into this elite online-dating realm? You have to be voted in!

"BeautifulPeople is the first community of its kind. To become a member, applicants are required to be voted in by existing members of the opposite sex. Members rate all new applicants over a 48 hour period based on whether or not they find the applicant ‘beautiful’. Should applicants secure enough positive votes from members, they will be granted a full membership to the BeautifulPeople Network."

The ultimate question is: Has our society's obsession with looks gone too far?