The Misguided Celebration of Ugliness
As we lose sight of beauty as a fundamental human need, the world has grown uglier and we have grown suspicious of beauty itself. Our virtue signaling hasn't changed our revealed preferences.
I came across a meme on social media the other day that purported to identify the difference between lust and love in a comic strip. On the lust side, we see an attractive woman dressed in a red nightdress, the strap falling off her arm, as her shirtless boyfriend caresses her body in bed. By contrast, the love side features a frumpily dressed woman eating a burrito in bed, covered in crumbs. Her (not shirtless) boyfriend is staring at her lovingly. Both sides of the comic strip vocalize the man's inner monologue. "You are the most beautiful person," he thinks, as he stares at his sexy seductress and his frumpy best friend.