Eye of the Beholder

Do you remember when your mother was the most beautiful woman in the world?

I witnessed a small girl, maybe 4 or 5, who looked at her mother and said, "You're beautiful!" Her mother smiled. Gave the child a hug. Yet something in the mother's eyes made me wonder what she really thought.

The earnest words of a child can be so powerful. Parents are supposed to think their children are beautiful. That was something I always believed as a child. But is the opposite also true? That the children are supposed to believe the parents are beautiful?

I have no doubt the little girl believed her words. Did the mother? Is it something peculiar about the person to believe or not believe the words spoken?

When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Women, especially, seem to fixate on their flaws. It's part of the problem with family. Can you look at someone who looks so much like you, a daughter, a mother, and see the beauty despite those pieces that you hate? It's a nose, eyes too close together, or even simple color.

There was a photo of my mother in a dress, hands on the column of a patio. Her smile showed her happiness, though I don't know when or where the picture was taken. I've heard her since lament her flaws, but I don't see them.

Is this the human part of the condition, where one is not allowed to see the beauty without vanity? That women cannot see it within themselves? Is it our culture, or is it something deeper?

Sex and Beauty

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So they say, anyway.

Erotica is about sex, about the coming together of at least one person in a sexual way. (It could be all about one and what's in her mind and still be a 'coming together' in my book.) Often erotic or pornographic stories focus on an unattainable ideal in the subjects. I know pornography is about the fantasy, but in erotica I expect something deeper. Sure, the story is about sex, but that doesn't mean everyone has to be beautiful. There are stories that change characters that are a little bit different from the ideal. Sometimes that's what drives them, and sometimes it's just a detail that adds a bit of spice to the situation.

I like it when a writer can make me think something is erotic that I wouldn't necessarily find beautiful. It's also one of the things I really try to do with my stories. I love to explore the limits.

An interesting article on a similar topic: Sexploration.