"OH MY GOD, NIGHT TROLL!!!"

Sorry, I couldn't resist. (Points to anyone who knows where that quote comes from.)

I understand that it may be deemed a natural reaction, but I still find it totally unfair to judge a person based on cosmetics. It instills a sense of unfounded superiority in the eye of the beholder.

ETHICS TIME: Let's applizzle some Kant up in this hizzle.

Alright, let's say YOU have the right to judge whether or not a person is beautiful. Cool. Now, let's universalise it.

Now, everyone else also has the right to judge whether or not everyone else is beautiful - including you.

What does that mean, exactly? Well, sir, I shall tell you. "Let's face it, some people are hideous," is a statement based on the assumption, whether conscious or unconscious, that you, sir, are not hideous yourself. Now, sir, I have the right to disagree with you. I think you are hideous. What are you going to do about it?

Nothing. You might get upset, but you're not going to do anything, precisely for the reason that you have given me the right to belittle you, even just inside my own mind, through your own observations. That's the awfully wonderful thing about universalisability. The second you start trying to apply intolerant or cruel actions everywhere, to everyone, society becomes intolerable.

It's not difficult to not be a judgemental douchebag. You just have to treat other people the way you'd wanted to be treated yourself.

"Well, you kind of look awful, at least you have a great personality."

Nobody, no matter what colour their skin, how big their breasts, how high their forehead, how prominent their ears, how heavy or how slender, should ever be forced to hear from another human being that they don't have the right to feel beautiful. Because that's what you're doing. By telling someone that their otherwise glaring flaws can be overcome by other attributes, you're consciously or unconsciously stripping them of their right to feel good about the things you detest.

I quote the immortal jellysundae.

Contributing to another person's insecurities. Making them feel like they HAVE to fish for compliments to make themselves feel better, because they're too damaged inside to find their own strength.

If everyone keeps looking at one another and seeing only the parts, seeing only the apparent imperfections, seeing the things that make people different, things that make them hate one another for reasons they don't fully understand because they are irrational, the already-vast number of people who feel uncomfortable in their own skin because someone else has made them feel uncomfortable in their own skin will just keep growing, until eventually a shambolic, corpselike version of happiness will be the only thing the unlucky majority caged within the opinions of others will know.

Perhaps we are already there.

THIS is a perfect example of the subjectivity of beauty, and the objectification of the beheld. THIS person is lucky. They feel comfortable with their own appearance. However, another person may not be so fortunate. And what if, one day, the person who felt confident in themselves suddenly realises that their shred of contentment has been chipped away?

What in the hell right does a person have to look at another person and tell them that they aren't beautiful? What right do they have to even THINK it? Beauty IS more than the sum of the parts, and everyone has the right not only to feel comfortable with themselves, but to feel beautiful.

Stop making yourself feel better by sitting on a peg above other people. Make a goddamn effort to see people as people, rather than decorated shells.