Beauty is both subjective and not. There are things that I think are beautiful and other things that I don't. Also, there are things I objectively know to be beautiful even though I don't personally appreciate them, such as most opera and much classical music. Not every guy is attracted to Nicole Kidman, but I think most people can agree that she has classical beauty, for instance. Likewise, I think most folks would agree that Roseanne Barr does not have classical beauty, though she may have other redeeming features (what they are, I can not identify, to date.) In some cases a person is not necessarily qualified to judge beauty. For instance, I would generally accept my good friend joeyblades's opinion on what constitutes beautiful electric guitar riffs over my own. That's all to frame what I think of when people use the word beauty.
So, when I hear from someone who recently took a corporate diversity class, that we should think of all people as beautiful, I just want to go puke. I have written before that I am sick of people hijacking words and this is another case. All people are certainly not beautiful. Some people are particularly ugly. We can not all be excellent in all characteristics. Some of us are not excellent in any characteristics. By declaring that all people are beautiful, the instructor simply destroys the fundamental meaning of the word. The instructor would have better served the audience to say that we should look for beauty in all people. Some inevitably will be found lacking.
I challenge anyone who disagrees to show me the "beauty" in a man like Jeffrey Dahmer.
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