Reply to Why do people say beauty is a third-tier quality?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Simple. Its third-tier because its a quality that can't be used to help anyone but the person who possesses that quality. Other qualities are seen as more important because they are good for humanity, community, family, etc.

Also, duh. [b]Its either unearned or paid for[/b].[/quote]

It's not true that beauty is always unearned or paid for. Consider all of your friends who work out to keep fit and trim. And people who take the time to pick their clothing, makeup, etc. to look their best. Most people aren't gorgeous, but everyone can try to look as good as possible.

Beauty serves a very important function: It provides aesthetic pleasure. Being unable to appreciate another's beauty, feeling the need to denigrate their attractive appearance, signals a certain shallowness of feeling and perception.

Wisdom, patience and empathy are all of top importance when it comes to a person's depth. But that doesn't mean that in practical terms and daily life that beauty doesn't play an important role.[/quote]

The problem is that beauty is subjective.  So you say that it gives aesthetic pleasure, but different people find different things beautiful.  Some people think the features valued in fashion are actually not beautiful (i.e. no curves, skeletal shape, withdrawn cheeks).

OP's husband might have thought she was beautiful, but other men might not have found her at all attractive.

Physical fitness isn't the same as beauty.  And I would put physical fitness in the category of strength.  It's something a person can build and work at.  But you can work out all you want, be strong as an ox and athletic, and still not possess the facial features people traditionally call beautiful.

In fact, in college, guys used to make fun of the women on our college soccer and basketball teams, saying they were masculine and butch.  But those women were physically fit, strong, and in great shape.

For the most part, so much of beauty (facial features, bone structure, body shape) are things that a person is born with (unless they do massive plastic surgery).

Being well groomed isn't the same as beauty.

Beauty is not something most people earn.  Sure, it may be something you maintain, but that doesn't mean you earned it in the first place.  It's like being born into wealth and inheriting a lot of money.  You did nothing to earn it, but of course, you can save it or squander it.  If you save it or make the inherited wealth work for you, that's great, but you have to realize that you didn't earn it to begin with, and it is much harder for someone who wasn't born with wealth to get to the same point.  So someone who was born with horrible skin or horrible bone structure or asymmetric features or bad proportions can only do so much to change that.  Sure, they can do things to look the best they can, but that isn't the same as being "beautiful."

So, no, it beauty isn't something earned.  That doesn't mean that people who are beautiful should feel bad about it (just like people who are born into wealth shouldn't feel bad about it) or enjoy it, but they shouldn't see it as a source of pride or some sort of grand accomplishment.[/quote]

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