Lookism In Literature

Quotations dating back to circa 42 B.C indicate that appearance is a part of a person’s non-verbal communication. Hence, the significance of one’s external appearance has never been undermined in human society. Even at the pinnacle of advancement, we as a society remain deeply prejudiced regarding one’s moral or general character based on their looks. As the term itself suggests, it is the construction of a standard for beauty and attractiveness, and judgement made about people based on how well or poorly they meet the standards.   

In today’s time, the preposterous romanticising of reading has led a large mass of audience to lean towards the pompous act of being a “reader” rather than actually picking up a book to retain information or apprehend its meaning. Especially the reader communities on TikTok have overcomplicated the simple act of reading by disparaging works that dissatisfy them and even go as far as promoting materials of explicit “erotica” to insatiable young readers.  

I remember back in 2019 when the community was only submerging and all kinds of readers made faceless recommendations of their favourite books, talking about the feelings it evoked. With the rise of teen-centred fiction writing as well as reading platforms such as Wattpad, anonymous writers cascaded writing fanfictions for their favourite artists and band members. This trend slowly gave young writers more space to write openly about their inner monologues with which came with the Dark Romance. 

Dark Romance is a social media generalised term that was initially ruled by the master of dark and gothic romanticism, Edgar Allan Poe. Classic authors used this very tool to symbolise the distressing fascination that radiates from the unfathomable, uncanny and frightful, which has had a lasting influence on visual culture since the eighteenth century. This theme has been twisted into the extremities of a “feminine” damsel in distress being protected and rescued by the “saviour” (who mostly tends to be the igniter of the issue itself) from the unfathomable. The fusion of these themes is nothing as much of a surprise considering that art has forever been taking new forms.

However, this trend of considering immoral acts of sexual and physical violence has been normalised in the name of darker themes, which not only discredits the struggle of a woman in a men-centred relationship but also sets us back by quite some decades. The dramatic fascination of teenagers and young girls towards reading and literature is not only because of the act of reading itself, but also the type of content that they are being exposed to through unfiltered social media content. Apart from that, sparkling covers featuring the concept of “CEO, rich, Alpha male” content, even on paper, have a similar psychological impact on all children by subconsciously implying the prejudices of gender essentialism.

 Moreover, the printing of two-word poetry on a whole page, termed as “modern poetry”, has also demotivated actual writers with staggering ideas to work towards their writing journey. The modernisation of literature at most has made people lazy, considering words are served to them on a silver platter monotonously without any meanings to decipher or metaphors to identify. This has not only reduced the number of readers but also completely diverted individuals from the idea of reading as a deeper exploration of words and their meanings and a dive into the writer's mind.