Wednesday 1 March 2017

Physical appearance

Last time I posted a topic about fashion. I also asked you if you wanted me to put one about  physical appearance, and some of you answered yes.. So here it is!
Our society is based on appearance; our appearance is therefore very important. Indeed, it shows  others who we are and who we seem to be. But does it really reveal our identity or our personality? Sometimes, even often, we tend to judge a person from his/her physical appearance without even getting to know him/her. Be aware that appearance can be misleading.


  • Does physical appearance really reveal our identity or personality?
  • Judging a person by his/her physical appaearance is it really knowing the person?

22 comments:

  1. Hi everybody !
    First of all, thanks for the subject because it's very interesting! Nowadays, we are less free for physical appearance because there are some prohibitions that the society has decided. In fact, the society does not like originality, it's Cartesian. However, some person still wear strange clothes ( because they love these clothes ), or do some tattoos but that doesn't mean these persons are different or inferiors. Our physical appearance reveal our identity because we choose the way we are dressed, the colors of the hair we have, the tattoos we make( or not) , piercing ... but that doesn't mean always you can be in category just because you wear black clothes, you are not gothic. As for me it is important to look inside , to know better the person after the physical appearance. However, the first thing that you are able to see is the physical appearance and it's sometimes too bad. Some of the person that you suppose ugly, strange, abnormal are kind and beautiful in the inside . That's why we have to go further always. Even if we love the physical appearance, the person can be ugly in the inside.
    As far as I am concerned, I guess virtual friends are the best way to fight against prejudices because we see the person after knowing her, her ideas , her likes and dislikes ...
    to conclude, we shouldn't judge a person from the physical appearance, and we have to be open-minded.
    Lena szepetowski, 1S4

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  2. HI EVERYONE!
    People can (accurately) judge your personality from a photo.
    They say first appearances can be deceptive. But people can tell a surprising amount about your personality from a photograph, one study found.
    People judge your physical strength based on your facial bone structure.
    Scientists recently did a study where they showed people photos of 10 different people with five different facial expressions, and asked them to rate how friendly, trustworthy, or strong the person in the photo appeared.
    Not surprisingly, viewers tended to rank people with a happy expression as more friendly and trustworthy than those with angry expressions. But when it came to traits like physical strength, broad faces were seen as stronger.
    We form first impressions from faces despite warnings not to do so. Moreover, there is considerable agreement in our impressions, which carry significant social outcomes. Appearance matters because some facial qualities are so useful in guiding adaptive behavior that even a trace of those qualities can create an impression. Specifically, the qualities revealed by facial cues that characterize low fitness, babies, emotion, and identity are overgeneralized to people whose facial appearance resembles the unfit (anomalous face overgeneralization), babies (babyface overgeneralization), a particular emotion (emotion face overgeneralization), or a particular identity (familiar face overgeneralization).
    A lot of people judge wihtout known the history of the person and sadly there is a lot of discrimination like that who can put aside a child.
    To sum up there is not the right thing to do but try to know him. It will be so simple and the discrimination will disappear.
    Xx

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  4. Hello !

    - First of all, in this generation, so many people in the world always judge people through their appearance, and not inside. - Like Lena perfectly said it is the society who decides which clothes are better than others, and it is just awful because it influences lot of people. There are many such situations where you will be judged by your physical appearance and you won't be able to do anything about it. Moreover I don't think that physical appearance really reveal our personnality because you can always wear black clothes and be happy, excited, and also wear colourful colors and be very sad, anxious.
    - To finish, everyone deserves a chance in this world to change something, and don't forget : "never judge a book by its cover" do the same with a human !!

    Clara Latella 1S4

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  5. Hi,
    To start with, in many cases people often « judge a book by it's cover » which leads to say that first impressions are very important. Indeed, when someone meets another person for the first time they usually make a judgement about his or her personality which is usually hard to erase. For example, in job interviews and college interviews you are being compared with a lot of other people or students who, most of the time, have the same qualifications as you. So, your first impression counts because it's what they will remember you by and judge you on since they don't have enough time to get to know your true personality. For instance, a person who wears a smart suit will come across more professional and well put-together than someone who comes in ripped jeans. Moreover, In my opinion the way someone looks, acts and dresses reveals a lot about their personality, like a smile can be synonym of self-confidence and sociability, blondes can be considered unintelligent.
    However, first impressions can be incorrect so I don't think judging a person by his/her character is actually getting to the know the person. For this, you have to talk to the person and get to know his/her likes and dislikes, his/her opinions to be able to make an actual judgement of character.
    All in all, people should stop making judgements about a person based on appearances and without actually knowing the person as it can lead to misjudgements of characters.

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  6. Hi everyone,
    Before starting, I would like to thank Esther to post this kind of subject because I was one of those that wanted to talk about physical appearance.
    First of all, our appearance is at the heart of our current society as Esther rightly underlined.
    Indeed, the first thing we are able to see from a person that we don't know is his/her physical appearance. To my mind, we naturally create an opinion of somebody at the first sight. However, I think that we cannot trust our first impression as we mustn't judge a person nor by the way he/she is dressed or by her/his face expression.
    Unfortunately, we have a nasty tendency to talk to people that looks pretty and seems to be nice. At least, as for me, I can't deny that I more easily approach a smiley person than a sad one.
    On the other hand, as regards to the outfit, I personally think that it is a way to express ourselves though we are limited and restricted by the society. What I mean is that people who dares doing rather unusual things are quickly considered as "abnormal". But, we must start from the principle that people likes criticizing and that is a shame.

    To conclude, don't judge a book by its cover and let's just take time to get to know a person. One should not forget that appearances can be defective.
    xx
    Marie Moroni 1S4

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  7. Physical appearance doesn't really relate to our personality: It doesn't even determine whether the person is more feminine or tomboy, because there are many girls who wear make-up and dress in a very feminine manner, and when they open their mouths, we undestand that they have a temperament more masculine and tomboy than one thinks .... The only thing that one can know is if the girl or the boy like to dress, to please or on the contrary they don't give importance to fashion! The beauty of the heart can't be compared to the beauty of the physical appereance, and vice versa. The beauty of the heart can't be read through a well-arranged physique, you have to know the person!
    Even if the appearance and look of the person can give us some clues, it's ridiculous to judge the person in relation to his / her physical appearance, it just proves that we don't want to know more, or we are afraid to be disappointed... Appearances are misleading as you say, and everyone should know!

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  8. Physical appearance has always played a big part when we judge someone because it is the first thing we see. But sometimes we can forget that behind this physical appearance there is someone with a real personality.

    It is important to take care of how we look because, even if it is sad, it is the first impression of someone that we have. However many people are criticized because of their appearance whereas they can be very interesting, nice and funny. A lot of people don't take time to get to know someone and just based their judgment on the first impression they have. Therefore a lot of persons are rejected because "they don't look". If we try to really get to know someone we can be very surprised. It's useless to have good-looking friends if they don't really love you.

    Nevertheless I believe there is no true beauty. Beauty is only based on criterion that the society made up. Nowadays a person who is not thin or don't have a muscular body can be considered as "ugly" which is totally wrong! We don't all have the same body or the same taste so it shouldn't be only one form of beauty. People's judgement can be based on physical appearance, because we are human and it's normal that we notice the appearance of other persons, but it is important not to forget the personality behind.

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  9. Hi!
    First , physical appearence is a way for people to express themselves . But often, this expression is critiziced by the society and it put everybody in categories . If a girl wear cloches too large for her , she's a tomboy , if a boy has big muscles and tattoos everywhere on his body , he's considerated like " the bad guy" ! People judge the others because the first thing they learn is the image that give the person. But one thing is certain : physical appearence is NOT related to the personality ! Many people don't realize that they judge without thinking . As for as I'm concerned , the image that we give to the others is above all seen in the physical appearence .It is a way to hide what we have inside , a protection against the outside world.
    So , before jugding the person just with his physical appearence , don't forget to try to discover her own world and her own vision of life.

    Patricia Petrea 1s4

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  10. Hello Esther,
    To answer to your question, I think that we all agree to say that we can't judge a person by his/her appearence. However, the way a person is dressed is the first thing we see when we meet someone. And, in my opinion, the "first sight" is very important in a relationship. Then we have the habit to like people who dress like us, and who look like us. In my opinion, that's really not a good habit but it would be difficult to change this in the world. Moreover, a person's appearence does not define him/her at all ! For exemple, a person can have tatoos and wear a total black look and have the same interests as someone who wear pink clothes.
    To put all in a nutshell, a look does not define a person and we nobody can judge someone through his/her appearence.

    Eve Hanoune

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  11. To begin with, physical appearance sometimes reveals a part of us, I mean we can see that a guy makes sport because of his muscles, or if somebody does not talk a lot, it can show that he is maybe shy.
    However, it is almost impossible to define somebody basing on his appearance. Everybody is différent and original that's why everybody deserves interest.
    However it is difficult to know everyone you see, that's why physical appearance can sometimes help you to choose who you want to talk with.

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  12. Hi everyone,
    Of course we should not judge a person by his/her physical appearance. However, many people judge a person by his/her physical appearance, because we often create an opinion at the first sight. Indeed, the phyiscal appearance or the way a person is dressed are the first thing we see. but we shouldn't trust our first impression. In fact, It is important to get to know a person before judging him/her.
    To conclude, I think that physical appearance doesn't reveal our personality.

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  13. Hi everyone
    As everybody said we should not judge people by their look. But we do.
    In my opinion how we dress is a way to express ourself however it doesn't everything about us. For exemple we don't dress the same at home or at school because society established rules that we follow. At home we can be us but at school for exemple we know we are going to be judged by people, so we restrain ourself, to be more like the others, a part of the masses.
    Being a person for who fashion is a strange word and a strange thing, I like to dress differently but I am not dressed the same way at school than the rest of the time because I know I will be judged.
    In conclusion the way we dress mean something but we can't judged somebody just by that.

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  14. Physical appearance plays a huge part of our society but physical appearance is too much taken into account as you all said well that is what you see first but let's not forget that how you look doesn't make everything.
    Indeed physical appearance is important because when you look at a person you try to guess the person's personality even though we shouldn't do that because sometimes the personality and physical appearance are the opposite.Moreover if you don't look like everyone wants you to be people are not even going to talk to you or see behind the physical appearance they will judge you for what they see and not what they know about you .Unfortunately some people change theirselves and how they look to please others which I found really sad because you're physical appearance is something unique.I don't really understand the fact that we should look at something special what I'm saying is that there's no exemple that we all have to follow.To conclude I would say that physical appearance is too much present in our lives and society I believe that we should all be proud of who we are we are all beautiful in our way we can't define what beauty is because it's unique.

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  15. Hello !

    I think we can not, as humans, ignore the fact that our appearance matters! We can not help but have a positive or a negative first impression.
    But in my opinion, I do not think it is actually important. We might indeed be willing to have a friendship with a "pretty" person but after a conversation, we might as well think the opposite.
    Furthermore, with time, you become used to people's appearances and you only care about what they say.

    To sum up, I would say that we can't, of course, know a person based on his or her look, even if first impression does matter.

    Coline Chataing

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  16. Hello,
    First of all, in today's society the physical appearence is very important for everyone. For example, if a young person do not follow "the fashion", He those be possible that it is excluded because are physical appearance is differente.
    The appearance physical is too often judged, while everybody is free to make what he wants.

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  17. Hello,
    I really want to say that physical appearence doesn't matter but it will be very hypocritical.
    But even if physical appearence is important we have to forget our prejudices.
    Futhermore,when a person first meet another one, he can only judge him by what he saw. But, thanks for that, we have a brain and with it we can think and realize that knowing de person for what he is and not for what it looks, is better.
    As a result, a beautiful person is not always a good person and conversely.
    To sum up, I will add that beauty is a personal point of view, so evryone is beautiful for one person !
    Emma Chailan, TL2

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  18. Hello everyone,
    To begin with, we are less free for physical appearance because there are some prohibitions that the society has decided. On one hand, In this generation, so many people in the world have always judged people through their appearance, not what is inside. We should learn not to judge a book by its cover. Also, according to some researchs, people who look good earn 4% more money.Our physical appearance reveal our identity because we choose the way we are dressed. However, the first thing that you are able to see is the physical appearance so that's why in the other hand I think that physical appearance is really important, and you have to look great for people who do not know you have a positive opinion about you.
    To conclude, I guess virtual friends are a good way to fight discriminations because we see the person after knowing her but also a bad way because the best friends are in the real life...

    Jacques Krzymuski 1S4

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  19. Hello everyone,
    To my mind, physical appearance is not important that much, I mean yes, it's the first thing yout notice when you meet someone new, but it doesn't determins who you are. I know a lot of very beautiful people dressing very well but who actually are mean an hypocritical.
    Nevertheless, your physical appearance still has to be neat, I think that your clothes has to match the place you go to. To my mind, going to school with sportsuits and flip-flaps is unappropriate.
    To conclude, you sould not judge a book by its cover insofar the book has an appropriate cover.


    HANA AYED 1èreES 2

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  20. We live in a world but especially in a time when our appearance became very important and where it took a place which I think, is disproportionate. Indeed, it is enough to look if only the media. Now, to be on television became a "purpose" for many young people. The creation of "selfies" and "buzz" are also the reflection of the importance for the people to show.

    Personally, I think that our appearance has nothing to do with our personality. Indeed, we can get dressed one day as red and the next day in black while our favorite color is the blue. This example can seem stupid but according to me, it is the reality. It is as an actor, he is going to play a role but the appearance which he is going to give of him what is not what he is. It is as when we are with people who do not have the same age that we are different with those who are our age.

    Furthermore, we cannot judge somebody on its appearance for a very simple reason: we have no same ways and it would not be just. Indeed, we sometimes see very beautiful clothes about which we would dream to wear. They would show a part of our personality because it would be something that we like. Nevertheless, due to the lack of money, we do not still wear what we like, but what we can. It does not thus reflect our personality.

    To conclude, I shall say that you should never judge somebody in the appearance. No matter of what looks a person, it is always necessary to learn to know her to know how exactly she is, and then to get an idea on her.

    Louise Azinheirinha, 1L.

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  21. Hello everyone,

    As a lot of you already said, physical appearance is, in this day and age, very important in society. Many people judge others according to the way they look.

    First of all, I think that judging someone by their looks is, to a certain extent, human nature. Even though we were always taught to « never judge a book by its cover », we all do.

    I don’t believe that appearance reveals our identity or our personality. For me, the way you dress or the type of clothes you’re wearing don’t define who you are. Wether or not you are well-off, shouldn’t make any difference to how people see you.

    Some people have the money to buy the clothes they want. As a result, they can choose their own clothes according to their personalities and tastes.

    However some people don’t have the money to buy the clothes they want. Therefore, those people can’t choose the clothes they like according to their taste and personality.

    To conclude, appearance doesn’t reveal somebody’s identity nor personality.

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    Replies
    1. I made a mistake, it’s “whether” not “wether”

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