We live in a society of Tinder and hookups. Our preteen bodies vanished and suddenly sex became not just cool, but normal. With this sex-crazed culture comes expectations. As much as it is preached, "you don't have to do him/her if you don't want to," some of us still feel the pressure. It can be as simple as, "He bought me a drink so I really should dance with him" or it can be "This is the third date..." Now sex isn't a bad thing, but sex can dominate not just relationships, but how we view ourselves.

I had a guy call me "beautiful" and my first thought was to see this supposed compliment as a negative. Now, that is messed up. The guy was genuinely complimenting me, but my mind immediately thought, "Why not hot or sexy? Is he not attracted to me in that way?" Sex culture had programmed my brain to think a guy could only like me if he wanted to have sex with me. Thus, I didn't take beautiful as a compliment.

The thing is, sex doesn't measure worth. Still, pretty, cute and now even beautiful don't seem to live up to "sexy." These are all different words, related, but still carrying entirely different meanings. Who decided that it was the best to be "sexy?" When you look at the definitions, they don't seem so special.

Sexy: " sexually appealing, attractive, or exciting" -Merriam-Webster

Now look on urban dictionary, and "hot" gives you a ton of descriptions, not just of what a "hot" person is, but what someone might do to a "hot" person.

Now if you look at the definitions of beautiful, we have these.

"Pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically." "Of a very high standard; excellent." - Merriam-Webster

Beautiful has an elegance that you don't get from "hot." So the next time you receive a compliment, think about what it really means, and don't diss yourself for not being called "sexy." Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and being called beautiful, well that is beautiful. Besides, I'd rather please someone's mind than just be a sex object.