In Response to The Professor...

• The problem with beauty is that it's relative. You are at the same time both gorgeous and hideous, depending upon who's standing next to you. 
• The problem with beauty is it's easy to overlook. You see yourself everyday. You don't notice your striking cheekbones, or your smile. Stand in front of a mirror, completely alone and completely naked, and you will see what you don't like, probably because you want to change it, make it better, and have already noticed it before. 
• The problem with beauty lies in it's culture. I'm taking an Islamic Civilizations course this semester, and one of the most striking differences between the west and the middle east is it's conception of beauty. In the middle east, skinny women and men are seen as unhealthy and sick. In the western world, heavy women and men are seen as unhealthy and lazy. Both extremes don't work. The anorexic and the fatso are both unhealthy, so...
• The problem with beauty is that the standards can't be trusted. People place so much faith in their appearance as perceived by their culture, and then they lie to themselves about it. A girl in America puts on a bikini and thinks it's beautiful when you can clearly define all of her ribs. A woman in Iran gets a marriage tattoo between her heaping bosoms, a sort of pop-up book for her husband to read, feeling proud when the tattoo enhances her stretch marks. 
• The problem with beauty is in it's fickleness. Beauty never lasts a lifetime, so the beautiful may feel a desperation when they look at themselves, as if they have to get their fun in now, before the good times end. 
• The problem with beauty is that none of this matters. There are more things I could say, more problems with beauty that I could point out, but it seems futile to fight the current that's been running for far longer than I've been alive. I would rather be an obstinate rock, placed in the middle of the river, quietly disagreeing with the water. Physical beauty is largely determined by society, and according to my society, I am not beautiful. But I don't think society has it right, just yet, because I am beautiful. And by all accounts I shouldn't be. 

Thanks for listening, 

P. I. Staker