What happened to the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover”, in the 21st century most people have become superficial, everyone does judge a book by its cover, there’s absolutely no second thought to judging what you see as soon as you see it. Every morning when I get dressed I worry if people will think I look good, I moisturize and brush my teeth in order to get as close as I can to the social constructed image of a gentleman, the nicely brushed hair, the sharp smile and the smell of an erotic plant in hopes that when a person sees me their first judgment will be something positive. Just being yourself doesn’t cut it anymore, people are buying into the idea of beauty and in the society we live now we must be up to date on what is socially acceptable in order to have power, power that enables you to stand out, to never be judged in this socially constructed society.
I’m a 6’2ft, 197 pounds Colombian with a BMI of 19.2, I work out 4 days a week and box 2 days a week, I play in a men’s soccer league and in my free time (aside from studying) I like to skateboard, snowboard and swim, so I can pretty much say I’m an active guy, and with physical activity comes good health, I’ve never broken a bone in my life and the last time I was at a hospital for health issues I was 5 years old. It’s funny how every time I meet a new women the first thing they ask is if I can speak Spanish for them, and every time I meet a new guy the first thing they mention is the Colombian cartel and soccer, it really puts perception into place and it gives a bit of insight on how gender has been associated with certain things in society, in my case women like Spanish (the love language) and men like drugs and sports. I think of myself as a healthy individual with some sort of power and I guess people do see me as a healthy/powerful individual because they come to me for advice or help; for example I was at the gym a couple of days ago and I was doing some ground based strength training with a bar, I guessed it looked interesting to this guy who came up to me and asked me what I was doing and if I could teach him, I explained and taught him the movements and moved on, he saw me as a good socially constructed symbol of health so he came for advice in hope of being one himself, and I know because I do the same thing too, I’ll ask for guidance from those who I believe can help me achieve greatness and with greatness comes power. I treat my body like a temple, both physical and superficial aspect. I like to dress nice because I believe if you look good, you feel good but my definition of looking good might be different than another person’s, for example I like wearing my Baltimore Ravens jersey every Sunday to show that I’m a fan, but if someone were to see me they would probably assume I’m just a lazy guy who just drinks beer and eats hamburgers all day, but that’s not the case, what they don’t know is that I happen to be a very active guy, and this judgement has been socially constructed through stereotypes. I have a couple of good friends and in some occasions they mention how jealous they are sometimes, especially when it comes to women; the best example I can think of is one of my good friends, he’s Asian, 5’6 and 165 pounds and he really likes white girls, but society says that white girls usually don’t like Asian guys, so he’s always telling me how he wished he was taller than 6 feet, and could grow long curly hair so that he could have a chance with the type of women he likes, but it shouldn’t be like that, I always try to tell him that he shouldn’t think that way, he puts himself down before even trying like many people do now-a-days just because it’s not “normal” in society. Why is it that so much people “wish” they were different, like my friend, he hates being short and Asian, but why, because society and the social forces around us have us believing and agreeing with the ideas that are being sold to us, the fact that some things are