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Does Inner Beauty Exist?


Pong Messiah
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You always hear about "inner beauty," but does it actually exist?

 

Is it just something homely people and their mothers say to help justify their existence?

 

If it does exist, how powerful is it? Can it overcome, say, a major physical deformity?

 

You know, for the life of me, I can't recall seeing anybody who's extolled the virtues of "inner beauty" lower their own standards when it comes to mating. It's always about how other people should be behaving (i.e. the old "socialists are always so generous... with other people's money!"). How odd!

 

:confused:

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Someone's personality could be described as beautiful. But it's confusing cause beauty is normally used solely to describe aesthetics. So to use the word to 'beautiful' to describe how wonderful a person's values, thoughts or actions are is kind of strange...

 

So, because we DO use the word to describe wonderful people, if say yes inner beauty exists.

 

However, if your gonna be all analytical on it, then maybe that's incorrect use of the term beauty.

 

Dunno. I'm just dribbling shit.

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The words beauty and beautiful are used in tremendously broad ways. From gazing at a clear blue sky, to watching waves crash over a sandy beach, to the morning songs of blue jays, to the taste of a ripe peach, to a splash of paint, to words strung together in haiku, to the deeds of a saint and of course to how someone appeals to you.

 

They are the correct words to use in all those instances... to be analytical about it.

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Someone's personality could be described as beautiful. But it's confusing cause beauty is normally used solely to describe aesthetics. So to use the word to 'beautiful' to describe how wonderful a person's values, thoughts or actions are is kind of strange...

 

So, because we DO use the word to describe wonderful people, if say yes inner beauty exists.

 

However, if your gonna be all analytical on it, then maybe that's incorrect use of the term beauty.

 

Dunno. I'm just dribbling ****.

So essentially, people with beautiful personalities exist, and while you can appreciate those beautiful personalities, it won't necessarily make you want to bone the meat husk their beautiful personality resides in?

 

That's what I'm really wanting to know.

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Odine has the right idea. No, there is no such thing as inner beauty. "Beauty" has a connotation of describing physical appearance, and that is how the word is intended to be used. The first definition in Merriam-Webster's states: "the quality of being physically attractive." The first full definition in Webster's says "the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses," the key word there being 'senses.'

 

The qualities that people are trying to describe with "inner beauty," we already have other nouns for: kind, generous, thoughtful, caring, etc. Those words exist for a reason. If somebody doesn't want to use those words, but rather wants to hijack another word that was not intended to be used that way, then that says something about the person. Namely that they are probably fat and resent that the word "beauty" doesn't apply to them. Whereas the secure person wouldn't care that the word "beauty" doesn't apply to them and care about the things they can control- i.e. being "kind," "caring," etc.- all things that one can individually control.

 

I am a short person. I am not tall. Therefore, I don't use the word 'tall' to describe myself, because it's not true. I also don't go around talking about how "inside" I'm a "tall person." No, that is some stupid whimpering unrealistic babying bullsh-t of a weak person that can't even come to terms with who they are who they aren't.

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Maybe Carrie is so adamantly against the idea of inner beauty because she's aware that she'll never possibly have any of the qualities associated with it?

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What I want to know is how "inner ugliness" can make even a stunningly beautiful person as sexually appealing as an icicle beartrap, while "inner beauty" can, at best, augment the attractiveness of somebody who is already at least passably attractive.

 

Moral: personalities only matter if they're bad.

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Someone's personality could be described as beautiful. But it's confusing cause beauty is normally used solely to describe aesthetics. So to use the word to 'beautiful' to describe how wonderful a person's values, thoughts or actions are is kind of strange...

 

So, because we DO use the word to describe wonderful people, if say yes inner beauty exists.

 

However, if your gonna be all analytical on it, then maybe that's incorrect use of the term beauty.

 

Dunno. I'm just dribbling ****.

So essentially, people with beautiful personalities exist, and while you can appreciate those beautiful personalities, it won't necessarily make you want to bone the meat husk their beautiful personality resides in?

 

That's what I'm really wanting to know.

You can be as "internally beautiful" as you want. If you ain't got some exterior superficial aesthetic beauty for me to admire then I ain't gonna bone shit.

 

To answer your question.

 

 

But again, everyone's perception of aesthetics is also gonna vary. Some people like the Mona Lisa. Personally I think it's a bit rubbish. And I bet Leo himself felt the same way.

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Inner ugliness exists. I've met some totally gorgeous people that I would just not bang. They drip with asshole douchebagery dirtbag juice, and I ain't getting that shit on me.

 

As to the original question, I'm "eh" on it. I've certainly met some dudes and thought, "this guy is not very attractive" but after getting to know them awhile and realizing how awesome they are their attraction quota raises. Ultimately, I think looks are the least important (though still important) part of the how-attractive-is-this-person metric; who they are dictates how much I want them way more than some happy genetic happenstance.

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Guest El Chalupacabra

Odine has the right idea. No, there is no such thing as inner beauty. "Beauty" has a connotation of describing physical appearance, and that is how the word is intended to be used. The first definition in Merriam-Webster's states: "the quality of being physically attractive." The first full definition in Webster's says "the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses," the key word there being 'senses.'

 

The qualities that people are trying to describe with "inner beauty," we already have other nouns for: kind, generous, thoughtful, caring, etc. Those words exist for a reason. If somebody doesn't want to use those words, but rather wants to hijack another word that was not intended to be used that way, then that says something about the person. Namely that they are probably fat and resent that the word "beauty" doesn't apply to them. Whereas the secure person wouldn't care that the word "beauty" doesn't apply to them and care about the things they can control- i.e. being "kind," "caring," etc.- all things that one can individually control.

 

I am a short person. I am not tall. Therefore, I don't use the word 'tall' to describe myself, because it's not true. I also don't go around talking about how "inside" I'm a "tall person." No, that is some stupid whimpering unrealistic babying bullsh-t of a weak person that can't even come to terms with who they are who they aren't.

Nice attempt,(seriously a good write up) but I gotta call BS on you there. If you are going to use the dictionary to define beauty, you have to include more definitions to cover other contexts of beauty. In fact, the definition you gave is actually incomplete.

 

From http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beauty?show=0&t=1407500814

 

It further states

 

1
: the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit : loveliness
2
: a beautiful person or thing; especially : a beautiful woman
3
: a particularly graceful, ornamental, or excellent quality
4
: a brilliant, extreme, or egregious example or instance <that mistake was a beauty>

Furthermore, http://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/beauty

 

2

: the qualities in a person or a thing that give pleasure to the senses or the mind
[noncount]
  • the beauty [=loveliness] of the stars
  • We explored the natural beauty of the island.
  • I'm learning to appreciate the beauty of poetry.
  • We have different ideas/notions/conceptions of beauty. [=different opinions about what makes things beautiful]
  • “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever…”4 John Keats, Endymion (1818)
    [count] informal : a very good thing : a very good example of something
    • That was a beauty of a fight. [=that was an excellent fight]
    • Dad and I went fishing and we caught a couple of beauties.
    often used in an ironic way to describe a bad thing or person
    • That mistake was a beauty.
    5
    : a good or appealing part of something
    [noncount]
    • The beauty of the game is that everyone can play.
    • No one knows when it's going to happen, and that's the beauty of it!
    [count]
    • One of the beauties of the system is that it allows you to adjust the schedule easily.

     

     

     

Also, consider the qualities you say can describe a person here:

"The qualities that people are trying to describe with "inner beauty," we already have other nouns (actually, would not these be adjectives?) for: kind, generous, thoughtful, caring, etc."

 

So, based on the definitions of beauty above, if someone is considered kind, generous, thoughtful, or caring, things that are intangible or abstract that describes one's personality, or something "inside them," which literally is because it comes from the mind of one person and is appreciated by the mind of another, and it is found to be beautiful, wouldn't that therefore be defined as inner beauty?

 

I think so.

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