h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Can I say something that'll make me unpopular? I normally do anyway, so here goes.

I wouldn't go for someone 'ugly but with a great personality'. I'd make friends with them, but what's the point of dating (and therefore, I take it, sleeping with) somebody you think is ugly? At best, it'll be a sympathy shag, and will probably end up making their self-esteem even lower when they realise that you don't much like looking at them. What's more, I have enough self-respect to realise that beautiful idiots, or occasional scumbags, really aren't worth the hassle. So, I'd say 'thanks, but no thanks' to an offer from both.

Secondly, what is beauty, anyway? What is ugly? I don't think I've ever looked at someone and thought "oh my god, that person could break a mirror". I mean, I've thought "okay, I find this person distinctly unnatractive" or "they have a truly repellent personality" but ugly is quite a harsh word; is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Or is it in everyone, we just choose to see it because we like the way a person talks, or they set off all the right pheremones?

Lastly, would any of you REALLY change how you looked? Not losing weight, putting on weight stuff because that fluctuates over time anyway, but for example, I have small breasts, no chance of ever having any hips (my bone structure just doesn't DO that, despite the size of my thighs)a nose that is better suited to a cat and a jaw bone like Desperate Dan's. Nonetheless, it's MY anti-curves, MY stupid nose, MY enormous jaw. They're a irritation, sure, but no major impediment - they don't cause me pain or make me disabled - what's more, they're MY irritation. Losing them would be losing myself, in a way. It isn't that I escaped all this self image stuff, I have come to terms with my body. It's not perfect, but I've lived in it for some time now - it's mine. When I look in the mirror I see myself.