Your essay calls to mind the movie "Shallow Hal" in which Hal (played by Jack Black) character now sees with his physical eyes the inner beauty of characters who are in fact physically plain or, in the case of his romantic interest, very obese (Gweneth Paltrow, with and without the body suit.) Guess how the inner beauty is represented? As stereotypical beautiful and handsome actors. Now, they're indeed examples of physical beauty, but is that the only way to represent inner beauty? (And by implication it seems to confirm the physical unattractiveness of the characters, rather then consider whether they're at least partly victims of a society conditioned to recognize only certain archetypes as being beautiful.) A more daring choice is for Hal to see the same plain or fat face we see, but now in addition he sees the kindness, keen intellect, etc. (and also cruelty, dullness, etc.) His focus is no longer on the beauty of the handwriting, but instead the beauty of the message. But now I'm probably describing an art house film; a commercial film usually panders to existing prejudices or virtue signals that it holds the same values as the cool kids.
Your essay calls to mind the movie "Shallow Hal" in which Hal (played by Jack Black) character now sees with his physical eyes the inner beauty of characters who are in fact physically plain or, in the case of his romantic interest, very obese (Gweneth Paltrow, with and without the body suit.) Guess how the inner beauty is represented? As stereotypical beautiful and handsome actors. Now, they're indeed examples of physical beauty, but is that the only way to represent inner beauty? (And by implication it seems to confirm the physical unattractiveness of the characters, rather then consider whether they're at least partly victims of a society conditioned to recognize only certain archetypes as being beautiful.) A more daring choice is for Hal to see the same plain or fat face we see, but now in addition he sees the kindness, keen intellect, etc. (and also cruelty, dullness, etc.) His focus is no longer on the beauty of the handwriting, but instead the beauty of the message. But now I'm probably describing an art house film; a commercial film usually panders to existing prejudices or virtue signals that it holds the same values as the cool kids.