I once watched a movie in which a man trying to give another man a makeover forced him out of his shoes while they were walking and threw them over a balcony.
I gasped at the scene, not just because of how wildly the man behaved but because the shoes looked exactly like my favorite pair of white New Balance sneakers.
I laughed nervously and cared for about two hours, but then I regrouped. I really like this pair of sneakers. Actually, they aren’t ugly to me. They feel so comfortable, and like their name, they keep me feeling balanced and well-supported.
Still, I have been told by a friend that they are so unattractive it’s embarrassing. He found a coupon for me to buy some new black Nikes, and though I bought some, I secretly have gone back to wearing my New Balances again here and there because they are like stepping into a sea of comfort.
Sometimes we really do need a makeover, though perhaps not quite so spontaneously as the man in the movie. Physical appearance carries so much weight in our society that a new word, “lookism,” has been created to describe it.