Is Beauty Objective or Subjective?

Back in college, my friends and I, while sitting around and drinking, (you know, the times when you didn’t go to a party but just hung out in the dorm room/apartment shooting the breeze) sometimes played this game called Kill, F***, or Marry. The game is simple. You name three females, and each person has to decide which one he would choose to kill, which one to f***, and which one to marry. For example, if the three women are Rosie O’Donnell, Julia Roberts, and Christina Aguilera, most guys would choose to kill Rosie, f*** Christina, and marry Julia Roberts. Of course, we didn’t play the game with celebrities. It was always the names of women we knew at college, ranging from the women none of us knew that much who we all fantasized about to the women we who were in our circle of friends, and occasionally, though usually not, girlfriends were included too. Sometimes, to make it interesting, we would throw in a couple nasty ones, such as the 70 year old lady who works in the cafeteria and the butch looking professor, so that you would have to pick to f*** or marry one of them. Anyways, when there were obvious disparities between the choices, most of us would all answer the same way. But, when all three girls were hot (or ugly), then every one would pick differently and it got interesting when we each would have to explain our choices.

I think beauty is kind of like that. No, beauty is not some perverted college drinking game. I mean, sometimes, it is obvious who or what is more beautiful and there is no need for debate, whereas at other times it depends on whose perspective. And, no, I am not going to bring in Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle to explain how beauty is objective, or bring in a Nietzsche or Sartre to tell you that beauty is all subjective. This will be my own thoughts and ponderings (though, I did study philosophy in college and have been influenced by the great thinkers, so there ideas may show up some).

It’s kind of like “which pizza topping is best” is always a subjective question whereas something like “green stop light means go and red light means stop” is always objective. Beauty is one of those categories that has an uneasy existence in the middle. When you have someone like Rosie O’Donnell and, let’s say, Britney Spears, it is obvious who is better looking. But, let’s compare, say, Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan. There are different answers from different men on who is better looking. It depends on what you are into. There is no exact objective answer to the question on which one is more beautiful. Or, if you have two beautiful women, each with a boyfriend. The man with women one will think she is best looking, and the man with woman two will think woman two is best.