Before you crassly label me as a total asshole or scroll down to the comment section and tell me I'm completely and utterly full of it, I invite you to read what I have to say before you disregard my unpopular opinion. Because I insist that not everyone is beautiful.
The word beautiful is an adjective, defined as "pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically," and "of a very high standard; excellent." This word, and the most commonly thrown around phrase, "Everyone is beautiful," has become a mere platitude -- it doesn't resonate, it doesn't justify and it doesn't truly mean what it should mean.
We aren't claiming that "everyone is intelligent" or "everyone is athletic." So what makes beauty the free pass, a universal compliment? This question is easily answered. We live in a society obsessed with the exterior. To be frank, your level of attractiveness will have some sort of effect on your social life, your career and even your mental health. That is disappointing and sad.
Whether we like it or not, beauty is our primary scale of value. I will be the first one to admit that I struck up a conversation with a guy in my class last semester because of his big blue eyes and dark hair. I'm sorry. That's it. And now we are good friends. I truly believe we would've become friends even if, to me, he wasn't aesthetically pleasing, but it gave me more of an incentive to seek him out. If this is where you'd like to call me shallow, then be my guest, but before you do, please remember you have most likely done this very same thing whether you were conscious of it or not.
Not everyone can be beautiful, just as not everyone can perform brain surgery, run a half marathon or play the guitar. Some of us have unibrows, unwanted mustaches, quintuple chins, warts in weird places and balding heads. Perhaps these qualities are not "of a very high standard" or "pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically."
Please note the word aesthetic in the definition of beautiful. Beauty is an adjective used for what is seen on the outside, but we have misconstrued its meaning and created it into something it is not.
The message people are trying to say with the phrase, "Everyone is beautiful," is something more along the lines of "everyone has value." So why do we not say this instead?
The weight put on our physical attractiveness is immense and overpowering. But you, reader, I cannot see you and cannot assert whether or not you are beautiful, charismatic, sexy, funny, or caring. But what I can assert is that you are worthy, interesting and deserving of love. Perhaps by discontinuing the use of such ambiguous words and phrases, the emphasis on people's value can be placed on things besides our external presence.
