Friday, August 27, 2010

Not Hot. Pretty, but I Won't Say Either

Hello all. Get ready for a pretentious attack. The second part hopefully won't be so pretentious. This is also totally deep into the shallowness.

I try to never use the term 'hot' when I'm describing a girl. I try to stick with 'pretty'. All of theses words come with weird and difficult to describe baggage. I mean it seems that 'hot' and 'pretty' should mean the same thing and in reality I guess they kind of do. It's just they are totally different somehow. At least to me. I'll try to describe, but this may become convoluted and confusing.

'Hot' means a girl is really attractive, but also seems(at least to me) to convey that it's fake. Loads of make up and breast implants are 'hot'. Five inch high heels are 'hot'. 'Hot' implies artificial perfection. 'Hot' also creates a sense of the unobtainable. It's like that's her and I'm me and that's it. That's how it will always be.

Example: Porn Stars

'Pretty' means that the girl is attractive, but it's different than 'hot'. It's more real, whatever that means. It's not clothes, it's not make up. It just is. 'Pretty' doesn't necessarily mean obtainable, but it's just that a 'pretty' girl doesn't seem so different. While a 'hot' girl may seem almost like another species, a 'pretty' girl is another person.

Example: The girl you have a crush on

I hope some of that made sense. It's probably nonsense. Hair-splitting bullshit. I may be just loading words that don't need it.

Ok, on the topic of using labels to describe attractiveness.

I seriously have a major issue with telling a girl I think she's pretty or looks nice or whatever. Whether I actually believe it or not, it just always feels like it would be received as cheesy, pandering bullshit. I'm not talking about times when it's totally inappropriate. Douchebags will tell girls they're looking hot when it isn't called for. I'm talking about times when saying you look nice would be appropriate(i.e. a girl saying she looks bad when she really looks good.) I still won't say it.

It's probably mostly my shy/awkward nature. It's also my liberal guilt. I think it's kinda chauvinistic to tell a girl she's pretty.

Anyway a few drinks gets me over that.

I was thinking of doing pictures with this post, but decided it was shallow enough.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

1 comment:

  1. As a girl, I think you've nailed the hot/pretty distinction. ;)

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