"You're so beautiful!".."Am I?"

Beauty, n : That quality or combination of qualities which affords keen pleasure to other senses (e.g. that of hearing), or which charms the intellectual or moral faculties, through inherent grace, or fitness to a desired end; cf. – Oxford English Dictionary.

What does it mean to be beautiful? Today society has put this word under harsh scrutiny and made it the subject of deep analysis. Much like those on a wild goose chase trying to achieve some kind of manufactured belief of beauty, they still have no idea what beauty really is. What exactly does it mean to be beautiful? Beauty is described as something that is pleasing to the senses or desirable. Much like all sensory elements of most human beings, they are all different and adapted to suit the preference of the individual. For example, I’m sure that it is rather easy to deduce that not all humans have the same preference in food or nutrition, hence the large variety of restaurants that cater to their respective consumers. We all don’t have the same sense of fashion, hence the numerous clothing retailers for their respective consumer, we all don’t have the same taste in music, and hence the numerous genres of music we have access to. In a day in age where our differences are celebrated and catered to, why do we constantly perpetuate the same idea of what is beautiful as if we all have the same tastes and preferences as they guy sitting next to us? Personally, I believe it is not the word beauty, but the idea and the concept behind the word altogether. If beauty is what is desirable and pleasing is the lack of such a thing uglyness? If someone isn’t beautiful, should they feel undesirable? For years the word “beauty” and the idea of what is actually beautiful has been an area of controversy. So much so that, women and men alike have gone to extremely painful lengths to emulate the current idea of beauty. Why subject your self to pain to conform to a standard that is impossible to achieve? Maybe the price of conformity is far less a price to pay then price of rejection… What is it exactly that makes someone beautiful? In order to answer that one must subject themselves to the criticism of others and conform to be someone else’s idea of beauty. Simply put, beauty is not objective its subjective. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What I find beautiful may not be your idea of beauty, but that’s the beauty of it.