Beauty is only beauty deep

There is little doubt that I would classify myself as a feminist under what I think is the definition of feminism. There is a tension between being a feminist and being open about finding a woman attractive.

Allow me to illustrate my point: I read this article on The Guardian and nodded along agreeing strongly with Romola Garai’s point of view. “She’s right, about it being outrageous,” I thought as I read it. What a great joke I also thought (see highlighted text – Snipping Tool is amazing!) , she’s intelligent and funny*. Only I also continued to go back to the picture at the top of the article and ANOTHER part of my head was thinking, “she’s fucking beautiful – I just like looking at her beautiful face.”

I definitely am not judging Garai on her appearance alone, I just like the way she looks. I am very much a fan of her acting – she was one of the standouts in a remarkable cast in The Hour. I have read interviews and watched her interviewed and impressed by what she thinks about things.

You are allowed to believe in equality and think women are very, very good looking aren’t you? I think I am OK unless I am not seeing any woman in just a physical way, or I am placing physical beauty above other traits. And I’m not. I mean I do, clearly, but for the purpose of being to seen as a modern thinker I say I am not.

I’m not sure the age when you’re not supposed to be OK thinking like that. I think I went past that age. Just to be clear: I don’t judge a person on what they look like, I judge people’s looks on what people look like – and the way people look is one of the things I like about people. I’m sorry but you can’t have it all your own way, people with bad hair cuts in baggy woolen jumpers are fine to say they don’t care about appearances and like a person’s inner beauty. That’s fine and it’s a beautiful way to live (on a commune or something) but I really like people’s outer beauty (their beauty).

I will just blame going to an all boys school. It is amazing what people will allow you to blame on going to an all boys school. Shall we just skip the part where I give a couple of ridiculous examples of things people might forgive me for because I went to an all boys school (before finishing with an inevitable remark about Hitler going to an all boys school)? I think we should. Just to save time for once.

*I realise there is a chance this joke was written for her.