Quote (Korb @ Jul 18 2020 07:43pm)
While some scoff at vain, appearance conscious folk. Appearance is the number 1 reason, why people pay hard cash for pixels.
This vanity is neither as bad nor as irrational as it is sometimes portrayed, it simply reflects the desire to be better treated by others, to be acknowledged and to be noticed.
What is deplorable, is the way video games commercialize this, the way they weaponize human psychology against particularly vulnerable demographics, such as teenagers.
After all, the desire to attract attention and to be popular is strongly but not exclusively linked to the attractiveness to possible romantic partners, but this link to sexuality is mostly wrongfully overemphasized.
What you also find is that marginalized groups are more vulnerable to being more appearance conscious, because they don't just want to be treated better, but they want their abuse and mistreatment, however slight, to stop.
This sometimes leads to crass, garish and seemingly irrational displays, known as conspicuous consumption.
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