imagine Question For 7/1

[Comicality]

 1

You can easily see them from a distance. You know...the ‘beautiful people’. Or...at least what is recognized as being aesthetically beautiful. Everybody is somebody else’s dream boy or dream girl, no matter what. But despite the varying tastes that exist within the eye of the beholder...there seems to be a certain status of beauty that seems to be agreed upon with the social majority. And our question is...how does this affect how you treat these people, or how they treat you?

Think about it...are you nicer to someone who you find extremely cute? Do you make their needs a priority in your life? Do you rush in to make sure that they’re happy? If you looked the way they do...do you think that your life would be any different than it is right now?

Or maybe you’re on the other side of the fence. Maybe you’re the beautiful one. Do you feel eyes on you when you go outside? Do you feel privileged or admired in any way? Is beauty a blessing, or a curse?

Feel free to be honest about this, because I’d really love to hear your thoughts on this. Are the beautiful strangers of the world put on a pedestal and worshiped by the majority of normal society? Even when that beauty is only skin deep? (I know some real HOTTIES that are complete assholes! Hehehe, so...no thank you!)

Share your thoughts with us! Either put them in the reply section below, or you can email them to me at Comicality@webtv.net if you want to put your two cents in or respond anonymously! Thanks in advance! And I’ll seezya soon!

 

If you guys want to add your two cents to any one of the 'Q & A' sessions for future issues of Imagine Magazine, we'd LOVE to hear your input and your personal stories on the forum! Feel free to attach your screen name, or do so anonymously! Drop by this forum OR Imagine’s NEW https://www.voy.com/247962/ "Inner Visions" forum on the 1st and 15th of every month for a brand new topic of conversation! We look forward to hearing more from you!

[Comicality]

 

To be honest...I think I do.

I don't exactly know how to feel about that. Because I don't really think of myself as a shallow person. And the haze of beauty doesn't distract me for long. I mean, if you're drop dead gorgeous...but your personality doesn't match the pretty giftbox that it came in, my infatuation fades pretty quickly. There have been some celebrities that I was like, WOW!!! And I can't wait to see them in an interview to hear them speak and get a feel for who they are. And I've been disappointed. Hehehe, like...well...he's still hot. Just...not much else." 

But, before knowing anything about them, when it comes to that first initial smack in the face with someone who is absolutely stunning? I feel like I DO give them more attention. I smile, and I flirt, and I cater to them sometimes. I don't know why, I just do.

I've never had any serious hang ups about my own looks. I've never walked a modeling catwalk or anything, but I've received enough compliments to know that I'm nowhere near as ugly as I feel sometimes. In fact, a lot of those compliments are a little embarrassing for me, and I avoid them like the plague if I can. But...I feel like if I looked like some of the boys I've had major crushes on over the years, hehehe...I would have taken over the whole PLANET by now! LOL! Seriously! 

But I think a big part of beauty is confidence. And sometimes, it's just the ability to be comfortable in your own skin that allows you to come off as appealing and alluring to other people. Sure, there's something to be said about having all of your genetic molecules come together in an amazing way to make you a physical seduction from a distance...but you can't really know somebody from a distance. You certainly can't LOVE them from back there. 

So, while I have to admit to rewarding the pretty people with a bit of an advantage every now and then when it comes to my attention...it's all on the surface. After that, I'm looking more for the beauty on the inside, rather than on the outside.

You can't just sprinkle sugar on shit and call it ice cream...you know?

[MrM]

When I was a teenager I was ‘The Prettiest Boy In School.’ Not the big strong jock with the muscles. Not the ‘Bad boy’ with the attitude and the leather.

I was ‘Pretty.’

Being pretty and being a boy was not a good combo, especially in the time when I grew up which was the Stranger Things era EXACTLY. That show casts fairly perfectly what life was like as a teen in the 80s. The Pretty Boys were not nerds, but they were usually something else bad if not worse. Usually a ‘Fag.’ It was ok, if you were a Fag, to mess with you in the boys locker room according to some of the assholes in there. The fact that I was Gay only made this situation worse because I had to convince people I wasn’t Gay when I was being called Gay all the time and was the object of possible sexual harrassment by the other boys in the school that thought that was a ‘joke’ to do things like that.

The girls would pay attention, but then look away and think you were ‘stuck-up’ because they didn’t want to risk being rejected (which, then, I probably would not have done, but later would have).

I was avoided and derided a lot to the point where I thought I was unattractive and it made my personality sour which then made me completely unapproachable. If a boy had been seriously interested in me and had a mind to seduce me away from the strictures of my family and religious beliefs of the time then my sullen attitude probably would have killed their courage before they even attempted to get close.

When I went out to places alone I’d get ‘kissed’ at by guys and solicited for sex which they thought was funny, basically emasculating me in public. In the Gay parts of town, if I’d made the mistake of ending up there, I’d have men pull up and make offers which made me, at the time, feel very weird and afraid. I was 15-16 at the time, mind you. Once, I had a full on Goth guy in makeup basically looking like Lestat follow me around a Nordstrom . I was sure he’d corner me and ‘do’ me if I didn’t lose him. That was scary and yet, at the same time, I . . .  Wanted it too! He was truly beautiful!

As I grew older I put on some weight and my features ‘roughened up’ a bit which got me out of being Pretty, but I had lost all my confidence so I didn’t stand out at all anymore. I became invisible, which was weird, because, as bad as the attention was when I was a teen, it was at least some attention.

I’m middle-aged now and when I look back at old pictures of myself I can ‘see’ it, now. But when I was younger, I was very confused by the mixed signals and attention and totally misinterpreted a lot of it. I didn’t feel attractive at all. I felt like an alien. Maybe some would think this is ‘First World Problems’ territory, but for the Prettiest Boy In School that didn’t mean you were Big Man On Campus with all the girls falling at your feet. You were just weird!

If only I had found my ‘Billy’ in those days maybe my ‘Brandon’ years would have been more beautiful. 

So my experience of being Pretty didn’t award me special treatment at unless you call catcalls and near molestation ‘special treatment.’

Today, I tend to treat the ‘Pretty’ ones with a bit of wisdom. Never let it go to your head if you do believe in your own gorgeousness and if you don’t believe in it, let ME believe in it for you, because God knows that you are a world of beauty if you only let it shine!

Edited July 9, 2019 by MrM

[MrM]

Just for reference, after binge watching Stranger Things 3 over the weekend, I had a nostalgic meltdown and found some old photos of me from the time I was explaining above. This was me in the 80s right at the exact time Stranger Things was set. We really did look like that. They did a fabulous job on the ‘retroness’ of that show. It totally Hot Tub Time Machined me back to that time. I think that’s why I was able to remember what I wrote above so well.

What’s more, this picture represents something: a near miss that could have been a true life Comsiefied romance in High School story. I think the boy in the picture liked me and I don’t even remember his name. Sometimes, you miss the love of your life by less than inch.

Edited July 10, 2019 by MrM