From: ibshambat@gmail.com   
      
   I have know any number of women who said that they were physically   
   unattractive, who described the nastiness that they endured for that reason.   
   Many blame beautiful women, or even the concept of beauty as such.   
      
   The correct response is that beauty is not responsible for abuses of beauty by   
   ignorant high school kids and unscrupulous individuals. That unethical plastic   
   surgeons exploit women's insecurities to convince the already attractive women   
   that they cannot    
   be beautiful unless they keep coming back for more treatments, does not damn   
   beauty any more than does Hitler's misuse of Germany's national pride to start   
   the Second World War damn national pride.   
      
   Anything that has any appeal to people will see any number of people wanting   
   to exploit it. That is as much the case for beauty as it is the case for such   
   things as money and intelligence. That some people use money for wrong does   
   not make money bad; and    
   that some people use intelligence for wrong does not mean that intelligence is   
   bad. The problem is unscrupulous use of what has appeal to people, not what   
   has appeal to people in itself.   
      
   I was unattractive in school, and yes, many people treated me badly. I became   
   more attractive as I grew older, and in my adult life I have been at no   
   shortage of female attention. I have also known any number of women who had   
   been unattractive in school,    
   who later became attractive physically, personally, or both. Having seen this   
   from both sides, I say very clearly that being unattractive when one is young   
   does not have to be a death sentence. It is possible to become physically or   
   personally attractive    
   as an adult and attract attention of frequently better people than do the   
   people who have always been attractive.   
      
   I know a woman named Louise whose family made her feel like she was the   
   ugliest thing on earth. She never became conventionally attractive; but she   
   became very personally attractive. In her adult life, men went after her in   
   droves. She still has many    
   people who love her. If you are an unattractive woman, it doesn't mean that   
   you are doomed to a life of loneliness. There are many things that you can do   
   to improve your lot.   
      
   The problem is not with beautiful women, and it is not with the idea of   
   beauty. The problem is with the misuses of beauty by people who are either   
   unintelligent or unscrupulous. It is not the creators of beauty who are at   
   fault, and it is not the people    
   who appreciate beauty who are at fault. Michelangelo and John Keats, or the   
   people who go to museums and poetry readings, are not responsible for the   
   actions of stupid teenagers and unethical plastic surgeons. The stupid   
   teenagers and unethical plastic    
   surgeons are responsible for these actions.   
      
   So it is time to stop blaming beauty or love of beauty and confront the   
   problem for what it is. Nasty school cultures and unethical plastic surgeons   
   do not own beauty. Beauty existed for a long time before they existed, and it   
   will continue existing for    
   a long time after they're gone. Equating beauty with its abuses gives far more   
   credit to the abusers of beauty than they've ever merited. They did not invent   
   beauty; they did not create beauty; and they do not own beauty. Beauty exists,   
   and has always    
   existed, in and of itself.   
      
   There is certainly far more beauty in art – both Western and otherwise –   
   than in American high schools or in the offices of plastic surgeons. For that   
   matter there is also more beauty in nature than in either of these things.   
   Nature is a better    
   craftsman of beauty than even the most accomplished plastic surgeon. And there   
   are many, many people in the world who are also fine craftsmen of beauty, for   
   whom abusing an unattractive teenager or exploiting a woman's insecurities is   
   the last thing from    
   their minds.   
      
   The problem is not beauty – the creation thereof or the love thereof. The   
   problem is exploitation of beauty by people who either don't know what they   
   are doing or are wilfully doing wrong. Stop blaming beauty and its creators   
   and confront the abuses of    
   beauty by ignorant or unscrupulous people. They did not invent beauty; they do   
   not deserve credit for beauty; and beauty itself is innocent of their misdeeds.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)