For appearance’s sake: highly exalted at what price

After thinking long and hard, it seemed to me that as a society, we may be part of the problem. It would appear that the value of physical appearance has been exalted to the extent that it seems to rank higher than the content of one’s character.    

Are we so shallow as to subscribe to the school of what you see is what you get? When there is so much more to most of us than meets the eye; when the depth of beauty in our souls sometimes takes a lifetime to unearth – why are we so fixated on simply being pretty? Why is having other strengths and being endowed with fine character not as esteemed these days?