Reply To: How Shidduchim became a beauty pageant contest.

It is generally very easy to find a real (aka unretouched) photo of someone online, whether through public records (in some states driver’s license photos are accessible), social media pages (Facebook etc.), photos of school events and honors, etc. Obviously, these opportunities are more limited in the frum tzibur but certainly not impossible. In the real world, looks to matter, and avoiding the issue up front is likely to result in the issue becoming a concern later on, albeit some other issue is used as a pretext for the “disappointment” one side or the other in a shidduch has regarding the looks of their counter-party.