Of wealth and beauty

Exploring the profound influence of wealth and beauty on life choices, as illustrated through personal anecdotes and cultural references.

A dance teacher had a school close to where we lived. An uncle of mine was very keen that I, then 10, learn the art from her and he took me to the school. The beautiful teacher was interviewing future students. When our turn came, she looked at me and then my uncle and said, “Who is this?” “My niece,” said my uncle, smiling and full of hope. “Well,” she said, looking at me again, “I suggest you try another school. In my art, the dancer is seen and must captivate. I take only beautiful children.”

In the 1950s, we loved Doris Day singing Que sera sera, and we hum it every now and then today. But it was only recently that I was struck by what the little girl and later her children in the song aspired to. They ask if, when they grow up, they will be pretty and rich, or handsome and rich. Que sera sera. “What will be will be,” answers the mother. The nature of the questions does not worry her. Wealth and beauty have a place like no other in the scheme of things. Is there, though, a need to see Que sera sera and similar songs with some tolerance and not through the lens of grim ethics. Maybe. Yet it is striking that in a whole world of choices, the girl (and later her children) asked only about being beautiful and being wealthy.

The Shrek films deal with looks and appearance. Shrek 2 is complex, but for my point, briefly, Fiona, a princess, and Shrek, a grumpy green ogre, marry secretly. The king and queen get to know about the marriage — though not that Shrek is an ogre — and invite Fiona and him to a public reception at the palace. They travel there and when they step out of the carriage, there is a hush and shock about Shrek’s appearance. Shrek who has never thought about his appearance as different plunges into gloom. Unknown to Fiona and desperate to be considered handsome, He drinks a magic potion and morphs into a dashing young man. But it doesn’t work. It’s not this man Fiona loves, it’s green bulge-eyed Shrek and the swamp they live in. The message of looks here is not dwelt on, but it hits like a shaft.

Finally, a lighter look at wealth. In the famous Asterix comics, there is Chief Vitalstatistix, the head of a village in Gaul. His wife, Impedimenta, manages in the rough and tumble of living with the assorted citizens of the village. But she yearns for the wealthy high life that her brother Homeopathix lives in his village, Lutetia. She often urges her husband to move to Lutetia — or be Homeopathix’s partner in business. True to the stereotype, Vitalstatistix dislikes his brother-in-law. But one day he grumblingly agrees to accompany his wife to Lutetia. In the carriage, Impedimenta tactlessly extols her brother’s virtues. The chief explodes suddenly. “Homeopathix is a fool,” he says angrily. To which Impedimenta replies with equal vehemence, “But he’s a rich fool!”

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