I have a friend - a balanced-minded person who has equal interests in both the fields of science and arts. He perceives and inteprets things differently, to be more precise, uniquely. That is what I consider to be his main attraction. His name is Sivenesh Arunachalam. He is a teacher by profession, yet he is also an ameteur artist who provides mural services. The following is his picture.
We both like arguing on facts and critically view certain beliefs and statements which we see as not making sense. There was once where this argument about beauty based on gender in humans rose between us. We took opposite stands, where I stressed that female humans are more beautiful than males, while he firmly defended that male humans are more beautiful than their female counterparts.
I did not really agree with him since I have been so used to seeing females as the beautiful and attractive gender in humans. However,based on his premises, I had no choice but to agree with him. His argument was so interesting and logical that I really admired it a lot, even when I did not really favour his conclusion.
These are the premises that he gave to support his conclusion that male humans are indeed the more beautiful ones compared to females:
1. He said that we tend to be blinded by the delusion that female humans are more beautiful than their male counterparts. However, we should not forget that it takes a great deal of effort in order for females to seem beautiful. They need to apply much make ups, they have to dress up elegantly and use many ornaments such as jewelleries and other hair accessories in order to look at their best. In addition, some are even going for plastic surgeries, slimming programmes, liposuction, and many other firming and trimming programmes in order to cut those extra pounds off and and look as young and attractive as possible. These are not natural. These are actually artificial and through these, even the ugliest of person can seem to be the most beuatiful one. For example, look at the below pictures that contrast between the before and after make up look of 2 actresses. Can the beauty obtained through artificial means be considered as real beauty? (BCT - Valid, good, argument)
2. There is a common belief that beautiful people use beautiful things. In that case, all the beatiful and finest of things are used by females. Therefore, females are attributable to beautiful things, because they are beautiful themselves. However, this is not true. Lets take cars for example. Let us compare a Ferrari with a Proton Wira. Apparently, we would say that Ferrari is the most attractive one no matter what but isn't it strange that most accessory shops are having more accessories for Proton Wira than for Ferrari? This shows that Proton Wira needs more accessories in order to look beautiful while this is not the case when it comes to Ferrari. Ferraris are highly sought after by people just in the way they already are. Also not to be forgotten, even with all those additional accessories, people stil believe that Ferraris are more attractive and beautiful. There are possibilities for a modified Proton Wira to look better than a Ferrari, but it is an unfair comparison since one is with extra fittings while the other is in its natural form. The same applies to human beings. Females with extra artificial beauty incorporated to them are being compared with males in their natural form. Chances are likely that females will win. However, is it a fair comparison? Well, again it ends in a big question mark. Who knows, if males make up too, they might look even better than females with make ups. (BCT - Valid, good, strong argument)
3. Another good example would be our closely-related friends - animals. It is universally agreed that male animals look fitter, more beautiful and attractive than their female counterparts who look small, weak and less captivating. Things get even worse when these female animals grow older and give birth to their youngs. They then become saggy and unhealthy. Scientifically, there are many similarities between the human beings and animals in terms of cells, and biological processes. Then why should this issue be of any difference? The only reason why female animals stay unattractive and less beautiful than their male counterparts while female humans are indeed looking more beautiful than their male counterparts is that these animals do not have access to artificial beauty as do humans. Lets compare the females and males in the pictures below. Which one looks more beautiful in their natural form? Now let us imagine if the female animal, by any chance could get a make up and artificial beautifications, will our answer still be the same then? (BCT - Valid & Invalid, strong argument)
4. Therefore, it is wise to say that males are naturally more beautiful than females and it is undeniable that females do need extra fittings in order to look as beautiful and confident as males. Most females are not confident to go out without any make up, while males do not really bother about make ups. This is because they have confidence in their appearance. Besides, the effect of age is more prominent in females than in males. An aged male is still preferred by many and seen to be attractive while this is not the case with an aged female. There are many aged actors out there who still act as main heroes in movies, while aged actresses are not really preferred in leading roles in the very same movie. For example, Goerge Clooney was still accepted as an hero even when he exposed his grey hair, acting without dyeing his hair. However, the same acceptance may not be obtained by Aishwarya Rai if she acts with grey hair. (BCT - Valid, good argument)
5. Beautiful things or people own attractive qualities. In that case, let us take animals for example. Males have vibrant colours, louder and more captivating voices, and extra beautiful physical features. This shows that males are more beautiful. Similarly, in humans, males have louder voice, stronger body structure, more intelligence, more stable emotions and longer-lasting youth. This clearly shows that males are more beautiful than females, since males seem to possess more attractive qualities than do females. (BCT - Valid, bad arguments)
6. Beautiful and precious things come in limited edition while less beautiful and less precious things are found in abundance in our surrounding. For example, parrots are beautiful birds while crows are not. Which of these are seen more in abundance in the world? In that case, when we analyze the world population, there are more females than do males in this world. This also shows that males are more beautiful than females. (BCT - Invalid, bad, weak arguments)
He always says, "I am a nature-loving scientific person. Nature never lies, my dear pretty girls!".
BCT Analysis: All of the above were the premises and supporting arguments given by my friend to support his conclusion that males are more beautiful than female humans. I actually managed to identify many of the things learnt in critical thinking from his argument. He used much evidence based on physical evidence and observations. He has also made some assumptions.
Besides, there seem to be a certain degree of vagueness in the sentences, where it was unclear on what is the standard of real beauty and how it is measured. There were also some overgenerality involved. Most of his claims were objective and he did provide with proper examples and evidences. His arguments were mostly deductive, therefore, when he shows that the premises are true, the conclusion becomes true as well. His arguments, although valid, is a mixture of good and bad ones. Some of this assumptions seem to be inductive, involving both strong and weak ones.
Eventhough I do not really like the conclusion, but he has argued in such a way that he managed to persuade me that human males are indeed more beautiful than their female counterparts. I do admire his style of speech though.
Good
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