How does it feel?

Early (at least for me) morning, dragging my sleepy self out of the house with a decorous amount of clothing on and clean teeth to catch the train to work. General zombieland: the caffeine junkie, the uncontrollable cougher, the iPad-cyborg, the smelly farter. Until I raise my eyes from the boring scientific literature I insist on dragging around in the vain hope of catching up on work, and I see him. We all see him. An incredibly good-looking man in his late 30s walks down the platform as if it was a catwalk. With an understated smile, he gets on the train and finds a seat while we are all still staring at him.
Which begs the question: how does it feel to be so incredibly overendowed in the shallow department of external appearance? Are freebies the norm? Do admirers throw themselves at you? Is there a queue outside your front door? I am intrigued. Surely it can't be a disadvantage. Never heard anybody complaining for being too attractive (and, if you are thinking about it, I wouldn't risk my reaction. Just drop it). But how far can it be pushed? Does the so-famous 'inner beauty' ever come into play?

A friend of mine, a very intelligent and funny man who has never looked like a Greek statue or oil painting, had, sods' law, a very handsome brother. As a young university student and brainy overachiever, he could easily spark a conversation with the ladies. He also managed, in most cases, to build solid friendships, which he kept on working on in the hope of getting laid. His commitment to his 'mind appeal' was compelling: he read the whole Recherche du temps perdu, watched never-ending indie films, perfected his gentleman manners. All of this would eventually get the girl through his front door, with a high chance of success. Unless.. Unless his brother decided to show up. Like in a David Lynch film, the same sequence of events kept repeating itself again and again. The good-looking brother would walk into the room, introduce himself to the young lady, smile, offer her a cigarette, start talking about himself, and Proust, Wenders and Kieslowski were immediately forgotten.

Are we all that shallow? Can't we see what hides behind a pretty face? We would like to think that, now that we are a little older, we look at things differently, right? Except.. Incredibly Good Looking Guy has just flashed his piercing blue eyes in my direction and I have almost dropped my BBerry.. Life is incredibly unfair..
PS
This is probably immature, but can I at least hope he is stupid?