Beauty, Wealth, and Their Influence On Society

In every functioning society, a social construct of some sort is needed. Status and separation are some of the fundamental aspects of a functioning democratic-styled socie

Today, with the influencers and Tik Tokers, social media apps are often the newest determiners of social status. However, blowing up on Tik Tok is not so simple. Once a random person does gain a substantial following, they move out to LA and participate in the “influencer lifestyle” which includes marketing brand deals, content creation, drugs, parties, and going out to keep a certain social status. These people are not coincidentally receiving social media attention, they are almost always associated with beauty or wealth. What is quite unknown, however, is that these two factors are often one of the conditions for people gaining social media fame. Once you have one, the other will eventually follow. This is why beauty and wealth are often associated with each other.

One might consider other qualities that may influence social statuses, such as power or intelligence. But in 2022, most of the concentration seems to be on money and looks. The dynamic relationship between the two is quite interesting, so let’s break that down:

Person 1: A rich and beautiful person, not so common, but makes sense in everyone’s minds. Eg, actors, models, nepotism kids, etc.

Person 2: A rich but ugly person, quite common, mainly politicians, lawyers, doctors, respectable positions that, for a man, don’t require beauty to succeed in said field.

Person 3: A poor and ugly person, your average joe, or even the weird bum that hangs around your local 7-Eleven.

Person 4: A poor but pretty person, something along the lines of Julia Roberts’ character in Pretty Woman, Effy Stonem in Skins (UK), maybe even Fiona Gallagher from Shameless (US).

The funniest thing about all of these examples is that 3 of them are quite common, while the fourth is so incredibly uncommon, the only examples I could think of were fictional characters. The “dirty poor but gorgeous” character has been romanticized in films only, these characters are hard to find on the internet. This might just be because, if a pretty person is discovered on a social media app, the money will soon follow. This proves, according to my theory, that beauty and wealth are influenced by each other. A pretty person will likely become rich and a rich person will likely become pretty, with cosmetic surgery, fancy clothing, etc.

After proving that the two are intricately linked, which do you think has more of an influence on social status? Wealth or beauty?