We communicate that "looks don't really matter"... Really?? The need to look attractive, is programmed in us from a very early age.
A nice body and a pretty-face/handsome-face, is the ideal condition to have; true?
On the flip-side; We contradict ourselves with rationalizations, that help us to deal with physical imperfection. On one hand, we state that looks do matter; and on the other hand, when we state that looks don't matter -- it's what's on the inside that counts.
What really may count, is the great amount of money that is made through the promotion of beauty. The media, speaks louder than a consoling and well-meaning friend, who tries to tell ya that "you're beautiful, from the inside-out" -- rather than, "you're beautiful, inside and out" (which is a compassionate and humbling way, of letting someone know, that he or she is lacking in the physically-beautiful state).
Society tends to give offer a lot of contradictory programming. Beauty-wise, we need to be all that we can be; as well as personality and character-wise. However -- Being that physical perfection can be gaged immediately (and my blind us, of what may be inside), like the quality of a book by it's cover-- looks, have a great influence. And it's up to us, to find a happy value-system median, when it comes to the value that we place upon looks and the regard that we have for them as people; and not simply Gods or Goddesses, or worthy of more attention or esteem, than the simple Shrek-like morph.