So I just wanted to talk for a minute about this latest storyline I’ve been into. Actually I had wanted to talk about it last week, but it ended up being in the middle of Digital Overload. So we’ll do it now.

I’ve gotten a few angry emails about it, which was entirely expected. I knew the storyline would get a few people upset, or cause some arguments or debates. In fact that’s one of the core reasons I pursued the storyline, to be honest. So let me try to explain my thoughts and motivation behind playing out the storyline the way I did.

I disagree with people that say “looks don’t matter”, when it comes to intimate relationships. If someone were to judge another’s personality, or refuse to be friends with someone, just because of their physical appearance, then yes, I would call that shallow. But I don’t feel the same applies to romantic and physical relationships.

What defines physical attraction is different for each of us, down to a person. Some people are attracted to brunette’s over blonds, or shorter people over taller people. Just because one person doesn’t find a certain feature attractive doesn’t mean another person won’t.

Furthermore, I feel that for intimate relationships, that physical chemistry, that spark, is needed at the beginning of the relationship. Of course in the long term, personality is what matters most. But I think it’s ignorant to discount the importance of mutual physical attraction, to say that “looks don’t matter”.

Saying that “looks matter” gets you evil glances. People calling you shallow. It’s not saying that a certain type of look is all that matters. It’s not the same as saying “everyone has to look like a super model”. Just that two people’s definitions of attraction need to mesh.

Some people felt that with Lucas’ reactions to Kate, I was saying “overweight people are unattractive”. I disagree. I was only making the statement that Lucas finds overweight girls unattractive. And some of you may still find that objectionable, which is ok. I’m fine with Lucas not coming out of this as flawless. I was just trying to write something that I felt was honest. Something that a lot of us think, but don’t say.

I’m not trying to make broad, sweeping generalizations about appearances here. I’m just writing Lucas as accurately as I can, and as true to who I think he is as I can. Maybe I didn’t pull it off as well as I could have, maybe I didn’t explain it in this newspost as well as I could have. I decided to go with the current course of events, rather than a more traditional “Lucas wasn’t attracted to Kate, but her personality was so outstanding that she just wins him over and they fall madly in love, happily ever after” story. I thought that this way made the characters, well, a little more real.

And I happily accept that some people aren’t necessarily going to agree with that. But even if you didn’t like the way I handled it, hopefully you can now understand a bit why I gave it a shot the way I did.