What Does It Mean to be Beautiful?

In my honest opinion, butts are overrated.

It baffles me to this day that people write songs and lyrics about a person’s hindquarters. Seriously? How is a butt more beautiful than a person’s eyes or hair or voice? Or for that matter, what about personality?

But then again, Top 40 songs aren’t what you call “deep.”

On the other hand, celebrities are making such a big deal about the importance of body positivity. While I support the idea of appreciating the body one was born with, I don’t want it to come at the expense of shaming others for their bodies.

Julie Borowski pointed out the hypocrisy of some curvy women shaming skinny women in her latest video (to this date). And there are girls out there who are underweight for a lot of reasons that don’t involve eating disorders.

Disclaimer: What I’m about to say is just my opinion. I am not saying that I’m not above being superficial every now and then. I rarely look at a person and notice his or her physical beauty first. That’s not the same for everyone and that’s okay. I’m just stating that if we want to be truly body positive, we have to look beyond the superficial and figure out what beauty actually is.

So what does it mean to be beautiful?

To me, true beauty is a mix of a person’s physical, mental, and spiritual makeup. A beautiful person is someone who lives a healthy lifestyle. Someone who does the best they can to have a balanced, moderated diet and exercises, but not to the extent that they practically live at the gym. Someone who may or may not put on makeup or style their hair, but knows their best traits and gives those traits a featured role. (Examples of physical features I find beautiful include hair, eyes, smile, and voice. Something that every human being has and can show off easily.)

On top of being physically healthy, a beautiful person has to have a beautiful personality. To me, a beautiful person is someone who is kind, generous, and loving. And it can’t just extend to just those one likes, but the less fortunate and even a person’s perceived enemies and “haters.” Nobody can really be that perfect, but we can all do our best to go out of our way for somebody.

I find all different types of people beautiful, like children with Down Syndrome, a handful of Hollywood actors, and the many friends I have. I think that if the body positivity movement should move towards something, it should move towards showing the beauty in everyone and making the world a more beautiful place.