I don't know what got into me, but I felt like writing this post.
I am kind of cute. You can tell me that I'm "beautiful" all you want, and I respect your opinion, but I know the truth.
There are "drop-dead-gorgeous" people (extremely rare), there are not-very-good-looking people and then there are millions of us in the middle, kind of cute, almost pretty, pleasant looking, but not really beautiful.
I had a keen awareness of this from a very young age for two reasons (and I am being as vague as possible on purpose). My younger brother is one of those truly good looking people and everyone told me that I looked like someone and my honest assessment was that that person wasn't beautiful.
Sigh... this is not a big deal and I am very self-confident, I love my body (for the most part), my curls, my cute derrière and I know that, all things considered, I look pretty good. In addition being small and relatively skinny (and fitting into clothes sold to teenage girls) makes lots of people jealous (some of whom don't hesitate to tell me so to my face).
Oh, and there's this small detail, I'm EXTREMELY photogenic -- I am one of those lucky folks that looks really good in photos, always. But looking good in photographs (which is where some of you may gather your idea that I'm beautiful) does not mean that a person is indeed beautiful.
I don't know where I am going with this, so I know I shouldn't even be writing it (whatever!), but I've been thinking about this often lately. When I see people with gorgeous long hair, which I know I can't ever have or when I catch a glimpse of one of those rare gorgeous folks. Or when I wake up and look in the mirror and think I look "ugly" that day (I know, NOT true! But some days are harder than others).
I have also had these funny conversations with my husband, who is definitely also cute. When he praises my beauty I tease him a little and say that I'm merely "cute" and that I'm special to him for other reasons, not just my physical "beauty." And I joke with him that none of us could have married a truly "beautiful" person, that we're the perfect fit in terms our appearance.
Last, but not least, I love cute clothes and outfits, so I often look "cute" because of what I wear. I've wanted to blog about clothes and fashion forever and maybe someday I will. I'll let you know if I do!
It's funny you posted this, because earlier this week I was remembering a hilarious (to me) conversation between two of my coworkers in graduate school regarding being cute rather than being hot. I of course was already married; both of them (one guy and one girl, but not at all interested in each other) were still single. It went roughly like this:
ReplyDeleteThe Guy: "I don't think I want to marry a hot girl. I'd rather marry a cute girl."
The Girl: "Really? What's wrong with hot? I mean, I think of myself as hot."
The Guy: "Well, cute girls turn into cute women, and cute women turn into cute grandmas and cute old ladies. But hot girls are so high maintenance and worried about their looks and makeup and everything that when they get older they look like old leather bags that have been in the closet for twenty years and come out all dry and cracked and ugly."