In Love with Looks

Some people choose their lovers based on superficial qualities such as money, power, or status. One of the most common superficial qualities that people focus on is looks. While many people might argue that True Beauty Is on the Inside, others believe that external beauty is the only type that matters. Some might do so because they care little for their lover's personality and are only interested in sex. Others are status seekers who desire to be admired and envied and/or want to avoid being ridiculed for dating an unattractive person. Still others do so because they believe that looks are the only important factor in a relationship and things like personality or compatibility are irrelevant.

While this type of character mainly prefers to date/marry pretty people, how picky they are can vary; they might get with ugly people if they're desperate, but have no problems cheating or dumping their ugly lover for someone more attractive if the opportunity presents itself. Others might date/marry ugly people in order to exploit them or out of some form of obligation (such as Arranged Marriage), but mess with attractive people on the side. Still others might insist on only dating people who meet a certain level of beauty, and are repulsed by anyone who doesn't meet their standards. Some arrogant people might insist on only going after beautiful people because they believe that they're entitled to an attractive partner(s) and/or that they're too good to date ugly or plain-looking people.

Since healthy, long-term relationships require more than just looks to sustain themselves, relationships where one or both parties had this attitude never last long, or, if they do, tend to be miserable. Since good looks don't last forever, it often means that characters with this mentality will have no problems with breaking up with or divorcing people who end up losing their looks. In addition, since these types of people tend to favor looks over personality, it can easily result in their lovers having awful personality traits. Similarly, if a shallow person is dating or married to an ugly, but good hearted person, then they will have no problem dumping them for a more attractive person, even if the latter's personality is worse. Some looks-focused people might even choose to go after formerly ugly people they rejected after they become hot. If a character with this attitude falls for a beautiful good-hearted person, the latter will inevitably be repulsed by the former for their shallowness.

While this quality is always meant to be negative, the level of sympathy characters who express it can vary. If a character is sympathetic, they will eventually grow out of this trait by learning to choose their partners for their minds rather than their face and/or body, either because they got in a relationship with a beautiful person with a toxic personality or because they learned to appreciate their beautiful partner's personality. Unsympathetic characters, by contrast, will he treated as little more than shallow jerks who treat their crushes and lovers as prizes to be shown off and/or pieces of meat to satisfy their sexual urges.

Sub-Trope of Lust and Beauty Is Best. Characters with this attitude are often the "Lust Interest" in a Love Interest vs. Lust Interest scenario. Characters who are So Beautiful, It's a Curse and/or suffer from D-Cup Distress are often victims of these types of people. Some Abhorrent Admirers can be this if their abhorrence comes from their shallowness. Contrast Wasted Beauty, for characters who are repulsed by someone despite their looks. Often overlaps with Shallow Cannot Comprehend True Love since people with this mentality usually cannot imagine that other people might focus on traits other than looks. Usually overlaps with Trophy Wife.

Despite their protestations of wanting to preserve a young woman's purity and virtue, the driving force behind many a Pervert Alliance is her attractive good looks. Even if they do suggest that there is a deeper feeling than that there, it is largely revealed that they are Loving a Shadow and engaged in Wishful Projection.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Azumanga Daioh: Played for Laughs with Mr. Kimura's wife; when asked how she can love him, given that he's a shameless Ephebophile who openly admits that he only became a teacher because he likes highschool girls, the only answer she can give is that he's handsome.
• My Love Story!!: An interesting variant, as it is Makoto "Suna" Sunakawa who has people flock to him because of his good looks. Rinko Yamato's friends all think he's hot and would love to date him. Once a group of girls on a train all fall for him. Even a cat Takeo rescued from a tree seems to fawn over him. Except that Suna's not really interested. Only one girl, Yukika Amami, truly knows anything about him. She fell for him in kindergarten because he took a hit meant for her in dodge ball, worried that her glasses would break. Since that time, she's watched him, but initially Cannot Spit It Out. Unfortunately, while Suna does think she's a nice girl, he's still not interested in dating, though he tries to be gentle with Yukika's feelings when he tells her.
• Wasteful Days of High School Girls:
  • From her conversations with her friends, it seems Nozumo "Baka" Tanaka's sole criteria for finding guys to date is "Hot". It started in elementary school, evidently, as she wrote in her yearbook that she wanted to be an "awesome high school girl who went on lots of dates with hot guys". By the time she reaches high school, that hasn't changed, though she made the mistake of enrolling in an all-girls school.
  • Lily Someya is openly lesbian, and freely admits she chose the school based on rumors of "lots of cute girls", and she's not disappointed. Lily does seem to have some higher standards, but it's worth noting that a pretty face, like Saku "Loli" Mamoi or Kanade "Majime" Ninomae, will quickly earn her attention. At one point she's even rendered speechless at the sight of Kanade's mother, and ends up puckering for her to receive a kiss that never comes. And she has to sharply pinch her own cheek on occasion to keep from attempting to kiss Saku, as she values the girl's friendship and doesn't want to put her out.

Comic Strips

• Doonesbury: Mark Slackmeyer is tending bar at a gala when he encounters his estranged father Phil. After a few pleasantries, Mark notices Phil's companion, and remarks, "She's new. Your third [wife]?" Phil replies, "Fifth. They keep aging out." Phil marries them for arm candy; if they can cook or clean, that's a bonus.

Fan Works

• Inter Nos: The men and women under Shizuru's command all take an interest in Natsuki, who is noted to be beautifully pale, with long black hair, and impossibly emerald eyes. Those eyes, however, are perfectly capable of executing a withering Death Glare that sends everyone who tries to make advances on her running off with their tails between their legs. Shizuru, by comparison, does find Natsuki captivatingly beautiful, but is more drawn by her mysterious bodyguard's Elective Mute tendencies and her mysterious past, as Natsuki is revealed to be the last princess of the fallen Ortygian kingdom, taking a greater interest in her personality than her physique.
• In the Naruto fanfiction Push Comes To Shove, one the ways that the fanfic demonizes Jiraiya is by having him confess (thanks to a truth seal) that he doesn't actually love Tsunade and only wanted her body.

Films — Animated

• Beauty and the Beast: Gaston's sole reason for wanting to make Belle his wife is that she's the most beautiful girl in the village, which makes her "the best." He doesn't respect Belle's intelligence or her love of reading, believing that women shouldn't read, think, or have ideas, showing that he doesn't care about her personality. Even worse, Gaston believes that, as the best man in the village, it means that he's entitled to her.
• Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa: Moto Moto is a male hippopotamus who is large, muscular and handsome and has a deep and suave voice. He enjoys flirting with female hippos by flexing his chest muscles, and despite being described as aggressive but friendly, he isn't very bright. Moto falls in love with Gloria, much to her delight, but later as they have a date in the lake, he confesses that the only reason that he loves her is for her body. When Melman the Giraffe, who believes himself to be dying decides to confess his love to Gloria before he dies, he tells Moto everything that Gloria likes and hates, which makes Gloria realize that Melman loves her for who she is. Although Gloria and Moto break up, they do so on good terms, as they are later shown digging underground to look for water during a drought, only to find diamonds and gold.
• Mulan: During the song "A Girl Worth Fighting For", Ling states that his ideal woman would be a girl with pale skin and beautiful eyes. When Ping suggests choosing women for their minds, Ling, alongside the other men, scoffs at the idea.
• Shrek: While Lord Farquaad's primary motivation for marrying princess Fiona is to become a king by marrying royalty, he chose her out of all of the available princesses because of her beauty. After he learns of her curse, he immediately becomes disgusted and plans to lock her back in the tower while still being married to her in order to remain as king.
• The Swan Princess: As children, Prince Derek and Princess Odette are introduced to each other by their parents, who are reigning sovereigns aiming to cement an alliance between their two nations. Derek found Odette to be an insufferable girl, while Odette thought Derek to be an arrogant Royal Brat. Once these two heirs have grown up and filled out, Derek finds Odette to be charming and gorgeous, so he proposes. But when Odette asks why Derek chose her, his sole answer is "You're beautiful," and when she asks him if beauty is all that matters to him, he gets flustered and asks "What else is there?" Odette rejects Derek for being so superficial, which is how she came to be kidnapped by the evil wizard Rothbart. In the end, after defeating Rothbart, Derek finally tells Odette that he loves her for her kindness and courage, not just her beauty.

Films — Live-Action

• This is the initial viewpoint of Hal Larson in Shallow Hal, which doesn't help his dating life. After being hypnotized by a self help guru, he ends up seeing their "inner beauty" instead of their real appearance. This leads to encountering the kind Rosemary Shanahan, who under his hypnosis looks like a beautiful skinny woman to him, but is actually very obese.

Literature

• Conversational Troping in Jingo, when Corporal Nobbs is looking for love, but immediately vetoes Corporal Angua's suggestions on the basis that one woman has a squint and another has a wooden leg. (And this is coming from Nobby, who carries a certificate to prove he's human.)
  She sighed again. She was familiar with the syndrome. They said they wanted a soulmate and helpmeet but sooner or later the list would include a skin like silk and a chest fit for a herd of cows.
• Tade, Korede's crush in My Sister, the Serial Killer. He is a handsome and friendly doctor at the hospital where Korede works. One day, her beautiful sister Ayoola stops to visit and Tade is smitten with her. He ends up dating her, ignores Korede's warning that Ayoola is a Serial Killer of boyfriends, and even plans to propose to her. Ayoola dismisses her sister's heartbreak because Tade is just interested in her looks. Korede ends up realizing Ayoola is right.
• The Screwtape Letters: Screwtape tells his nephew Wormwood that sexual taste was a demonic contrivance, designed to lead men away from women with whom they might find healthy and lasting relationships in obedience to God. He says they vary the tastes from time to time to accentuate certain vices, such as having men choose statuesque and aristocratic women to promote vanity, or faint and languishing women to help foster weakness and cowardice. He says that at the time of the writing (World War II), they were trying to get men to focus on women whose bodies were "scarcely different from those of young boys", noted to be a particularly fleeting form of beauty, in order to exaggerate women's fears of growing older, and also rendering them less willing, or capable, or bearing children.
• Spellsinger: Pog the bat reveals to Jon-Tom that the reason he puts up with Clothahump's abuse is because the wizard has promised that at the end of his apprenticeship he'll be turned from a bat into a falcon, and Pog wants that because he's in love with a beautiful falcon who ignores him because of his ugly appearance. Jon-Tom asks why she can't see Pog's inner beauty, but Pog points out that since one of the reasons he's attracted to her is because of her looks it would be hypocritical of him to expect her to simply ignore his own appearance. Jon-Tom winds up transforming him into a phoenix at the end of the second book, at which point he does hook up with the falcon.
• These Words Are True and Faithful: Deconstructed. Sam and Ernie are initially drawn to each other because of their looks. As Ernie learns more about Sam and Sam's world, Ernie cools toward Sam, and their relationship founders. At the end, Sam explains this to Ernie, who admits that Sam is right.

Live-Action TV

• The Big Bang Theory: Howard, pre Character Development has a serious attraction to conventionally attractive women (at least when sober, as a drunken threesome with Raj and a heavy-set Sailor Moon Cosplayer demonstrates). He even justifies when someone chides him on looking at what's inside a person, instead, saying, "What's wrong with wanting those insides to be wrapped in the delicious caramel that is Halle Berry?" Sheldon agrees with Howard inasmuch as saying that biology does drive men to seek more attractive mates. He notes, however, that whether Howard successfully mating was in humanity's best interest was another discussion altogether.

Music

• Hyadain: In Super Mario World Western Show, Princess Peach isn't interested in either Mario or Bowser because of their looks.

Video Games

• Discussed in Persona 4 during Ai's Social Link. After bluntly rejecting a student who wanted to go out with her and insulting him for his looks, the player can trigger the following dialogue:
  Protagonist: Are looks everything?
  Ai: Well, a guy has to look at least on par with me before I'd consider him. That, and he has to click with me, I guess... Besides, I'm not interested in dating anyone right now.

Web Animation

• ATTACK on MIKA:
  • Kozue is a rare case of a character who grew out of this trait being treated unsympathetically; she married her hard-working, but uneducated husband Hiroshi for his looks. Years later, she regrets having done so and states that she wishes that she chose a guy with a good education so that he would make more money.
  • Taizou is a handsome and shallow jock who believes that relationships are only about looks; he initially looked down on the overweight Makabe, but became interested in her after she lost weight. He tries to steal her from her boyfriend Hiroki, with his "argument" for why he would make a better boyfriend being that Hiroki is short and unpopular, which means that a pretty girl like Makabe is too good for him, while a handsome guy like Taizou would make a more fitting boyfriend. Taizou becomes shocked when Makabe rejects him and stays loyal to Hiroki, who unlike the openly superficial Taizou, liked her before she was pretty.
• Etra chan saw it!: Akamatsu cheated on his wife Karin with Akane; while he claims that his affair was "true love," after Akane loses her looks due to an accident he tries getting back with Karin, showing just how shallow his "love" for Akane was.
• Factoogle: Logan abandoned his overweight wife, Tiffany, and children for a younger, more beautiful woman. Logan's actions end up biting him in the ass, because the other woman was a Gold Digger who dumped him the minute his business went under, his parents disowned him, and Tiffany moved on and married his cousin, meaning that Logan has no one to turn to.
• Manga Character Sprinklers: Ryugo rejected his Arranged Marriage to Seriko because she was fat and decided to have his brother Yuto date her instead. Yuto gets along with her despite her being fat, which drives her to lose weight to look good for him. When Ryugo sees how good-looking she is, he tries to steal her away, trying to use his greater wealth and position to alongside the fact that they were originally supposed to be married to entice her. Seriko turns him down, not wanting to be married to a guy who judges people by their looks.
• Manga Soprano: Casino cheated on his ugly, but kind-hearted girlfriend Teruyama to he with her beautiful, gold digging sister Erica. When Teruyama and her friend Ram catch him, he feels no guilt and tells Teruyama that the thought of having sex with her makes him want to vomit and that only a beautiful woman is worthy of being by his side.
• Revenge Films: OP's husband cheated with a younger woman. When OP calls him out, his excuse is that OP turned forty-two and isn't attractive anymore. He even blames her for his cheating, claiming that if she remained beautiful, he wouldn't have cheated. He eventually divorced OP to be with his mistress.
• Sekai no Fushigi: Ushida used to stalk Izumi, the prettiest girl in school, back in highschool. After Ushida sees that Izumi has a scar, he loses interest and insults Ataru, who likes Izumi even with her scar, for dating her. After Izumi loses her Scar due to plastic surgery, Ushida, despite already having a girlfriend alongside the fact that Izumi is dating Ataru, immediately decides to hit on Izumi, even admitting that he only likes her because he doesn't have a scar. He gets rejected by Izumi, and slapped and dumped by his girlfriend.
• Trouble Busters: Roger dumped his ugly but good-hearted girlfriend Tara for her beautiful but cruel sister Misty. He openly admits that the only reason he dated Tara at first is because he wanted to live off her money but decided that having to get hitched to an ugly girl wasn't worth it.

Webcomics

• Gunnerkrigg Court: Played for Laughs with the regional fairies Red and Blue. They have a falling out when they become human and Red loses her Anime Hair, but reconcile as soon as Red learns to keep her hair spiky with product. The human onlookers are utterly perplexed.
  Blue: Your hair... It goes up again!
  Red: It goes up again!
  Blue: Oooh! I wanna be your friend! Oh, please!

Web Videos

• Apple Texts:
  • If a male antagonist is a cheater, his reason for cheating is almost always because his wife is old, plain or ugly, while his affair partner is younger and/or more beautiful. While some husbands might use natural beauty as an excuse, others will claim that their cheating is their wives' fault for not taking care of their looks, not wearing makeup, or gaining weight.
  • Gold diggers who are married or engaged to wealthy but unattractive people will sometimes try to have their cake and eat it too by having more attractive lovers on the side, which often results in them getting divorced and sued. The gold digger's lover will either leave them or end up stuck living a miserable life of poverty alongside them.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series: In "Magnum Farce" Joey admits to being in love with Mai Valentine...'s breasts, even though he thinks they're "as real as a three-dollar bill."

Western Animation

• American Dad!:
  • Stan Smith originally married Francine for her looks. In Season 6's "Shallow Vows", Francine drops her looks for their renewal (as she has an extreme daily routine to keep them up); Stan is disgusted and reveals this, leaving her. He decides that the only way he can still love Francine is if he can't see her, so he purposely blinds himself. This results in him being unable to work and Francine admitting that she primarily married Stan for financial support. By the end Francine's back to her looks and Stan gets his eyesight back, and the two vow that as long as she's pretty and he doesn't need caretaking, they'll stay together.
  • In Season 2's Roger 'n' Me, Steve pines after high schooler Trudy while Hayley in one of her post-breakups from Jeff gets infatuated with college student Miles due to this. When they see the two dating, they both work together to break them up by they making them believe they are cheating on each other so they can comfort them. However at the park when they do break up, Trudy pushes Miles into a grill of a working BBQ pit that burns his face much to Hayley's horror and as a result causes him to scare Trudy to fall into the creek to get her body attacked by an alligator much to Steve's horror. Seeing their actions meant All for Nothing, Steve and Hayley decides to just call it quits and leave.
• Spider-Man: The Animated Series: Jason Macendale, when outed as The Hobgoblin, is asked by Felicia Hardy if he ever truly loved her. He states that there were certain things about her that he loved, such as her beauty and her wealth. She tells him that isn't love, as he's carted away by the police.

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