Looks can be Deceiving

I am always on the lookout for life experiences I can share that have irony or a catch—something that can teach a lesson differently or uniquely. Today’s story is one I was told years ago.

One of my friends shared with me a tale about an experience he had, which always serves as a reminder that appearances can be misleading. This good friend of mine and some of his other friends went to Las Vegas for a bachelor party or something of the sort. While walking down the Las Vegas strip, this group of guys crossed paths with a man with a slight build dressed as a superhero. This guy had all the expected staples of a superhero costume, with one alteration: he had exchanged his trademark superhero tights for a very skimpy set of thong underwear. To cut right to the heart of the matter, the costume exposed much of the superhero’s front side—and most of his backside—to the world.

My friend and his group had undoubtedly consumed several adult beverages and were feeling full of themselves, so when they crossed paths with the superhero, it was inevitable that something would happen. So, with that said, one member of the group—a particularly large, rough, tough guy with a propensity to speak his mind—chose that moment to say something critical about the superhero’s costume, also attempting to emasculate him.

It was at that moment that this gentleman found out that looks can be deceiving, for it took only a split second for the superhero to stop and jump on the big guy and commence beating the living daylights out of him, ultimately putting him in the hospital for the weekend.

In recounting this story, my friend said that based on the superhero’s looks, there was no way one could anticipate such a response—and more importantly, such a lopsided result. You see, that group of friends had clearly been deceived in two aspects, not only by the superhero’s size and choice of costume but also by the size of their friend and their confidence in his ability to defend himself.

So here is the lesson: we often make snap judgments about who someone is, what they believe, and what they are capable of, based solely on how they look. Don’t get me wrong; one’s appearance often does give us an insight into that person, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. In this story, the group was completely wrong. Here, the group assumed the superhero was a lightweight and thus incapable of an impactful verbal response, much less any type of physical response. And, even if the superhero did fight back, the group assumed, there was no chance he would be successful in a fight against their friend. They had always believed that their friend, given his size and attitude, could easily defend himself.

This story is always a reminder to me, when I find myself making judgments about someone based on the way they look, that looks can often be deceiving.