The Rizz Trap

May it never be forgotten that a book IS judged by its cover.

No matter what the wise quote says about not judging a book by its cover, that is setting the bar a little too high for us simple humans.

We love judging covers.

Judging women by their beauty, men by their status, humans by their identity, strangers by their insta posts, leaders by their speeches, intelligence by the mark sheet… it’s a global obsession.

The rizz trap is not new.

Charisma that blinds us to reality. Decorations that make basics look like accomplishments.

Apart from turning the wrong people into heroes, the rizz trap unleashes something far more dangerous… the quiet invisibilisation of those who deserve to be seen, heard and understood, but have the rizz of a flower pot.

I refuse to believe we don’t recognise a lie when we see one. Let the right mouth spellbind us into buying tickets to the moon, and we might just buy them.

To engage takes time, to unravel takes effort. And let’s face it, many of us are simply waiting to be seduced into believing what we already want to believe.

We adore flamboyant leaders. We fall for the music of their words and ignore what they actually mean. Beautiful eloquence wins over quiet competence.

We call the quiet ones ‘introverts’. We push them into storytelling workshops and personality development classes. We urge them to “speak up” and “own the room”.

When all they really want is to be left alone to do what they are good at.

Round pegs in square holes ignored while we romance the squares.

Of all the senses we have, I trust the gut most. That nagging feeling urging us to turn left when everything around us says go right.  All our other senses can be fooled by a beautiful cover on the dullest of books.

But the steadiness of someone who means what they say, listens more than they speak and refuses to join the circus because the world demands more clowns… that is the drug I crave now. That is the company I would like to keep.

Substance has no fireworks. It rarely fills a stadium, but it endures.

Fill the cover with flashiest of colours, fill the silence with the white noise of eloquent words, create all the exotic flavours you want… but Vanilla… vanilla is forever.