Lovelies, hear me out!
Upon reflection, calling a man handsome — the word handsome itself — is so gender-coded for no plausible reason other than to gender-code beautiful and pretty, file them away in the female department because god forbid a man can be beautiful or pretty, no, they must always be handsome. But why can't a woman be handsome? Sounds wrong, doesn't it? Well fuck this, this is mould that needs breaking, we need to shed some light on this because isn't beauty genderless? And what does handsome mean anyway, and doesn't being handsome imply beauty? Of course, but beauty plus something else manly. Okay, now why don't we forget about that superfluous manly thing for a second and call them guys BEAUTIFUL because it's what they deserve for god's sake, after all no one can be handsome without being beautiful. And I assure you, there's no reason to be ashamed of being called pretty as a man, beautiful no less, in the end beauty shouldn't even pertain exclusively to the physical realm of appearance. I'd call it rather a state of mind and heart, a mood, a disposition if you want. Just look at this:
François Cevert's manly beauty, because I couldn't help myself, this is pure poetry if poetry were the optical marvel they say it is (and I believe they're right)
Now hear me out. I'm usually not so pretentiously poetic (maybe just pretentious or poetic but usually not both), but semantics and phonetics (much as I hate those two, I drag them out of that dark drawer now) back me up because:
Beauty = Be-u-ty = be you, thank you (or if you want, thank you for being you, or you can take it as your daily stimulation and confidence boost, dears, this applies to both men and women so it shouldn't be as problematic as handsome, nor as restrictive for that matter). How simple our lives could be if we just looked at it this way, suddenly being beautiful no longer means good-looking only but more like feeling thankful for being yourself, a reconciliation with the self (which is more than a handshake, you know, we should hug that self, squeeze the living love out of it, kiss it with a passion) regardless of how we look. This should reflect on the outside, hence calling someone beautiful (as being glad they love themselves, with that very reflection of love). Call it confidence if you want, but one whose effects go both ways, fron us to them.
Now what do they mean, men can't be BEAUTIFUL? I say they are and it's a proven thing.
I took the liberty to put here my favorite picture of Niki wearing his scars like makeup and no, no one can convince me he isn't BEAUTIFUL becauee he is, this is true beauty and I believe in it, he looks like a doll and yet he's a man. Men can look like dolls, yes.
(not to forget all the picures of James Hunt I have carefully stored away)
So i'll make this my creed since it's something we should all hear more often. Beauty means the acceptance and love of the self, so let us love ourselves as much as we love others, because love of the self precedes (and affects) our love for others. Let's love and be loved!
I used pictures of two F1 gods as they've been sitting on my mind for quite a while (and possibly, probably prompted me to write this).
For a taste of what true beauty means to me, check out my favorite tag:
#ripped from heaven's holy veil The only one that should matter.
Also you can check out #writing as I occasionally write stuff myself.
