One evening, I decided to buy an Arizona Iced Tea at a local gas station. Setting my beverage down at the counter and rummaging through my pockets for a dollar, I caught sight of a rack of pills set right next to the register. The pills, Extenze, were a male enhancement product.

Chuckling as I received my change, I began to ponder what type of individual would go to a gas station with the intention of purchasing such an item. Why would anyone subject themselves to the torturous awkwardness of handing over those pills to the cashier? Such an endeavor requires remarkable determination. It seems easier to just accept your God-given body than spend money and pride on taking some suspicious pill. Trying to silence my laughter as I exited the station, I vowed to never to be so desperate about the way I look.

But the truth is, those self-conscious individuals who purchase those pills are not alone in their outlook. Nowadays, good looks are a buyable commodity. Diet pills are sold in almost as much abundance as vegetables, and acne medication is carried in more varieties than cold medicine. The explosion in cosmetic surgery for every bodily inch and weight-loss plans that don’t involve diet or exercise spread the illusion that our bodies are no more permanent than a coat of paint on a car, that we can be crafted into a perfect image if we’re willing to pay.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m no saint who has never judged a person by his or her looks, and if I could pop some sketchy pill from 7-Eleven and transform into the sexiest Da Wei alive, I would. But I’ve always found an environment in which looking good is something you can pay for somewhat silly.

Having been a short person for most of my life, I know what it feels like to want to change something about my body. Yet the fortunate part about being short is that there are no solutions. If there were, I would find them and probably pay for them. Without this option, I am spared the urge to purchase my height. Short people are excluded from the race to buy products that make up for undesired physical traits.

We’re not shackled to the gym or broke from plastic surgeries. Instead, we compensate. Beethoven, Napoleon, Carnegie and Gandhi certainly traded a paucity of height for a bounty of ambition.

Needless to say, liberating India or taking over Europe is a better way to cope with physical shortcomings than Botox is. I don’t like being short, but I’m not going to waste my time trying to do anything about it, except maybe consume an unsavory amount of milk. The notion that we can buy our looks and that everyone is responsible for perfecting imperfect traits makes beauty seem like something more fundamental than the arbitrary assortment of traits we subjectively define as “good.”

So I guess these days handing some cashier a set of extenze pills would not be all that awkward or unusual.

David Ullmann can be contacted at [email protected]