Why I Think the Saying "Don't Judge a Book By it's Cover" is Stupid

[Anonymous]

The saying "Don't judge the book by it's over" means all good things - I'm well aware of that! - however I think it shouldn't be seen as shallow to judge a book by it's cover. This saying is so popular that if you don't agree with it you're probably a shallow person, or at least that is what people say..

A book's cover says a lot about it's content. For example, if you look at the popular series Harry Potter's book covers, you might assume it was a fiction book about wizards with a young student as it's protagonist even without checking the summary. The cover conveys what the setting is about, and thus gives you a general idea of what the book is about.

If you're thinking "Oh, but that's a popular book. Everyone knows what Harry Potter is" then let me present a less popular book - Living Hell by Catherine Jinks. Tell me when you look at this book cover, what do you think of? Is it something along the line of "young boy slays dragon" cliche, or "astronaut experiment gone wrong" or perhaps "future destruction of humanity"? Well, I personally do and I can't say it's far from the truth!

So I'm assuming I've made my case about books clear enough. I'm aware humans are way different from books so let me just point out how they relate in terms of cover but first let me mention Sherlock Holmes. Mind you, I know Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character but he was modeled after a real person - If I remember correctly, the Author's professor or mentor? - and Sherlock Holmes makes great deductions about someone's upbringing, status, former location, etc.. Based on what? Looks. Of course, not only looks, but looks play a big part on it.

Let me present you this picture:

I have no idea who the hell this is, I got it from Facebook - Who uses Facebook really? I've got no old friends, I don't even have new friends. Anyway.. From this picture, I can assume this person is travelling (judging from the travelling bag and the duffel bag that has a jacket on top of it. I assume that both bags are full because there's an unused jacket on top of the duffel bag and nobody brings that much clothes unless they're travelling) and he looks like he has a relatively expensive watch (Seiko?) but somewhat messy looking shoes so I'm guessing he's a dependent youth who's parents are in the Middle Class or so. From the closed off stance, he's self conscious about the way his body looks which I assume has been neglected for years (maybe taken care of now because he has a relatively large arm - which make him look bigger - but what looks like a relatively flat torso). From the complexion and the overall facial form, I'd say he, at least, has East Asian blood.

So I've made a bunch of assumptions from this picture alone and it seems about the seem from the rest of his pictures - Shy, self conscious, not used to the camera.

How about this guy then?

He looks much older than the former guy, and more comfortable with himself and the camera - I say that because of his open pose, and the low head tilt is a common tactic in Photography to express a melancholic and thoughtful character. He also looks more muscular so I assume he lives a rather active life and most of his dresswear express "casual" and the watch, being rubber, I assume is low budge and this looks like a cafe, not living space. So perhaps he's a middle class adult with East Asian Blood.

So which of these two guys/descriptions are you more likely to approach? The first guy or the second guy? That's a matter of personal tastes but, if you were only given these options, I'd say more people would pick the latter because he seems more suitable for off spring.

I know personality plays a much bigger part than looks when it comes to attraction but there should be no stigma when people make assumptions over looks - only when they show violent dislike.

This is just my take, of course. What do you think?

[BrileyCat]

this is about a stupid and dumb trend started bc of a twitter and youtube video that
for some reason people found funny . where a teen girl says 'i'm gonna shave my eyebrow'
and then after not doing it they say "never judge a book by its cover" after not doing it .

but here is the problem with your opinion .
you say . A book's cover says a lot about it's content.
the point is . A book cover does not say anything about the quality and the character
of the writing content inside the book . <--- and that's what the phrase is referring to .

Sherlock was making deductions about a person's interests based on what they were wearing .
where they may have been . what they may have been doing . what mood they were in .
he was not judging or making assumptions about their character .

if you looked up the phrase you would have discovered . . .

the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover" is a *metaphorical* phrase
which means "you shouldn't prejudge the worth or value of something
by its outward appearance alone.

who said, 'never judge a book by its cover'?
the origin of the phrase is from 1944 “You can’t judge a book by its binding.”
which comes from and is found in the African Journal American Speech !
the saying became popularized when it appeared in a 1946 murder mystery called
Murder in the Glass Room by Lester Fuller and Edwin Rolfe which was changed to
“You can never tell a book by its cover" .

the phrase ‘Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover’ means
you should not decide upon something based just on outward appearances .
example of use . i’m glad i didn’t judge a book by its cover, or i never would have married him .

Martin Luther King, Jr. said ...
I have a dream
that my four little children
will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged
by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character.

its always much better to read legitimate and literate sources of information
to form your own values and opinions in stead of relying on nonsense
based on erroneous internet trends . most of which are shallow .

[Water_Bottle]

The saying comes from The Mill on the Floss. It is a reference to a child simply choosing things at random and attributing the same element to all of them.

"Maggie looked hurt and discouraged, while her father said, "Why, it's one o' the books I bought at Partridge's sale. They was all bound alike, it's a good binding, you see, and I thought they'd be all good books. There's Jeremy Taylor's 'Holy Living and Dying' among 'em ; I read in it often of a Sunday." (Mr. Tulliver felt somehow a familiarity with that great writer because his name was Jeremy); "and there 's a lot more of 'em, sermons mostly, I think ; but they 've all got the same covers, and I thought they were all o' one sample, as you may say. But it seems one mustn't judge by th' outside. This is a puzzlin' world."

It literally means the opposite of what you're saying and the popular understanding. It doesn't mean "don't judge" it literally means "don't assume the best". If someone looks like a good person that doesn't mean they are a good person.

Alas such things get twisted and people use them as conveniences.

[RedMatch]

I get what is being said here.
Judging a book from its cover (a person by how they look) is stereotypical, and its gives strangers an idea on what a person may be like. Often I have done this, though does not mean I won't give a person a chance, and many times it is right in some ways and wrong in others, because all in all appearances can be deceiving.

For example my boyfriend, shoulder length hair, dark and very warn out clothes, keeps to himself, my first impressions were strange quiet guy thats different, from many peoples first impression, is his a bum and probably a druggie. When in fact, really great interesting person, quite talkative and adventurous, hard working, never had alcohol or drugs, and just in a bad situation because of family.

Then also me, I once asked a girls first impression of me, she said you look like a pompous stuck up girl from a rich happy family and has never had to work for things, when in fact I just dressed well with clothes that are mostly hand me downs or second hand, was raised as an adult and knew how to be an adult unlike her flirting with every guy and starting trouble, and yes came from a wealthy family though only because we scraped everything we could by working together on a farm.

So covers are often mostly wrong with few correct things.

[Anonymous]

To me, if I see a guy taking good care of himself, having good posture and looking positive I'm assuming he has self respect and is trying to make the most out of life and that he knows what he wants. This to me is the requirement to dating a guy.

If a guy doesn't take care of his appearance and posture and always looks away shyly or grim I'd assume that his personality is not in a very good place at the moment as he doesn't seem confident and self-respecting. He'll need some time to find and love himself first.

It's not just an assumption I'm making I've actually seen these things in real life. I was naive of me to think that looks and personal maturity don't go hand im Hand because they obviously do.

Those are things I can generally tell by the appearance of guys. Same goes for girls. I used to be an insecure person, not taking the best care of myself and just being weird. I didn't have self-respect and I didn't have a good posture. I needed time to find myself and process things. At that earlier stage, no guy wanted me. Now some guys do seem to like me as I now seem whole and look the part too.

So I'd say there definitely is a connection.

[Rainie_]

Because of the amount of times people have judged me so wrongly I can't agree with you.

You can tell more about a person through observing their attitude/behaviour rather than how they look like in my opinion.

Common judgements about me based on my appearance and way I dress that haven't been true: I haven't gone through much hardships + my life has always been a happy one where I get everything I want, was that popular girl in school, I've had a gazillion boyfriends, im never single, im incredibly judgmental, evil (has been a common judgement once), sleep around a lot, I can go on about what people have assumed about me but truth is that my life is none of that.

[JesseEllyson]

Well, based purely on the cover, I wouldn't be reading that book that you use as an illustration? Not because I think the possible story that you outlined isn't a good one. In fact, that tends to be the kind of thing I enjoy from time to time. But the cover art just sucks. I can't even tell for certain if the main character is supposed to be male or female. And yet, I might be missing out on a truly fantastic reading experience simply because I judged this book by its cover.

As for judging people by their appearances, this can be just as deceptive. Yes, the stories you tell about the two individuals in the photos you share are plausible. But those are just photos. You can't do that with real people. It seldom works.

If I use your Take as a cover and judge you by it then I see a pompous ass who thinks he's got the whole world figured out. A guy who thinks he's got all the answers. I couldn't be further from the truth, right?

[Nivinxus]

Interesting, and funnily enough, I somewhat agree with you. Were it last year, I'd be disagreeing with you vehemently.

Looks do give a preliminary point of what the person can be. Let's take an analogy for this. Looks such as fashion style, body posture etc. are like the book's cover illustration, title etc. If it interest me, I might approach it, if not, well you can bet I might not bother dealing with it.

But like books of all kinds, humans deserve to be treated fairly and with some dignity and respect. which you more or less agree. Sure I might take a peak behind the covers of someone if another person 'recommended' it to me or I happen to see a small sneak peak of it. It might even change my mind, I won't dismiss someone by their cover alone, but there has to be an external factor or their cover just being good enough for me to approach.

[Chrysis]

Of course everyone takes looks into account, people who say they don't are liars and/or hypocrites. But I think you're taking this saying a little too figuratively. It's basically just used to point out that it's wrong to disregard someone solely for his looks or think he's incapable of doing this or that just because he doesn't look like he could do it.
It's fine to make a couple founded assumptions based on appearance alone, but people shouldn't judge people solely because of how they look & that's what the saying is aiming for.

[loveisbeautiful]

See, the thing about that saying is, it's true because a judgment is a guess, a guess is an assumption and when one assumes they end looking like an ass. I mean, people are going to make assumptions of others whether they should or not but I don't think it's right because chances are you are probably wrong.

I say this from experience, people have judged me all my life without really knowing who I am and it sucks. So, that's why I try not to do that to other people.

[MarkRet]

Sometimes the book might be very different from it's cover. Harrison Ford (in his younger days) looked like one helluva confident hunk, but he is actually VERY introverted. You can just SEE how uncomfortable he is in a guest interview. I once saw a movie called A Boy And His Dog. You would think by the title that it's some feel-good Disney movie. Far from it! It's actually a post-apocalyptic movie where the fun things for guys to do are scrounge for food and look for women to rape.

[Bananaman177]

The problem isn't that the cover gives no information. The problem is that the cover gives SOME information, but not ENOUGH.

You can't tell by a cover illustration and a brief synopsis on the back whether or not the book is well-written or if it's just a jumbled mess.

Lots of books have pictures of boy wizards on them, but not all of them are worth reading.

The best way to judge a book IS to look at the cover. Then open the cover and read the first few chapters.

[pleasestopthis]

I don't agree. It may be right if you focus on books, but people are way more complicated.
Some people are very hard on the outside but once you get to know them they are really good people, and some people are very cool and nice, but then you realize they're very crappy human beings.

[Anonymous]

Love it!
I agree with you. Humans are visual beings. It took all my life to learn that even if I might listen to this old saying and not judge other people by their appearance, LOTS of people have, and will, judge me by my appearance. I have lost a lot to otherwise unqualified people, only because they had a better appearance?
Ever watched "The Devil Wears Prada"? Quote: That's what the multi billion dollar fashion industry is all about: Inner beauty.

[sp33d]

No one ever said it was "shallow" to do so. A cover contains only so much information. You can't tell by a cover alone, you have to read it.

.. again with the "personality vs looks". Would someone please tell me what "personality" is! A good looking cover is certainly guaranteed to make you more interested. This analogy doesn't generalise too well, though.

[DaTruth01]

i judge lots of books by their covers and iam right most of the time, its not an accurate saying, cause most people make it obvious what kind of people they are, if your slutty it shows, if you're an ass it shows, if you're a toruble maker it shows as well.

[scooogy]

You can turn away from others if you like, that's up to you. But don't you dare returning as soon as you regret your choice. They're not there for you amusement, they have their own life. I had a girl reject me, and it took her years to really turn away from me, which was pretty exhausting. I hate that, to say the least.

[Bratsondanielle]

First dude is a tourist from china and second is a gangster drug dealer cuz he got tattoo. Easy

[levantine99]

thats the most superficial, judgmental and illogical shit i've read this week. good job.

[Aguamarina]

It's okay to judge anything by its cover and sometimes the cover matters more than what's on the inside.

[Djaaay]

That term , don't judge a book by its cover , holds true tho. And underestimating a person , is just plain dangerous.

[macix670]

People want to deny human nature. But we all judge based on looks and we're all shallow. Great take!

[Anonymous]

The context that saying was created from really has nothing to do with a legitimate meaning. As most sayings are, it was created as a confidence booster.