I have a grandson, 14, who is a handsome young devil. I say that not because I’m his grandfather (although it is true that all of my grandchildren are brilliant and beautiful, and I take almost all the credit for that) but because it’s objectively true, and that’s not just my opinion.
A while back, when looking over videos of the boy playing basketball – yes, he’s athletic, too – I remarked to his mother, “You know, in a couple of years, that boy will have a trail of girls following him around everywhere he goes.” She sighed, “Dad, he already does.”
I’m hip. Being extraordinarily handsome and charming is a tough load to bear. Trust me. I know, from long experience. Granted, I was much younger then.
Turns out that hot people all over the world are bemoaning the fact that they, too, must bear this burden.
What a pity to be pretty.
The gorgeous people of the Internet have recently lamented the alleged disadvantages to life that come with their good looks, contrary to popular belief of so-called “pretty privilege.”
On Reddit, a thread asking folks — their physical appearances unclear — “What was your horrible experience for being attractive?” has gone viral with a bevy of various answers.
A few were understandable, particularly around the recurring theme of “unwanted attention” and harassment, others say it affects their reputation as well.
“Apparently I want everyone’s husbands,” one woman responded.
What’s worse, it seems being hot can affect other people’s perceptions of you. Who knew?
Apparently, friendships can become “difficult” when you’re good-looking as your appearance may cause close pals to feel insecure — “even if you think highly of them,” wrote another.
Someone else added that “people often assume I’m vain, which isn’t true.”
Others clapped back and the stereotype of having just body and no brains as well.
What can we possibly add to that? However, I suspect that some of the people who are agitated about this burden of attractiveness may well fall into that “no brains” category.
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I was once a young and handsome lad myself – and I have it on good authority that when I was a young man I was extraordinarily handsome and charming, not to mention intellectually gifted; my mother and grandmother both told me so, and I never knew either of them to tell a lie. Of course, as the saying goes, it’s not the year, it’s the mileage, and if these days I more closely resemble ten miles of bad road, that’s just the after-effects of a life enthusiastically lived. I have always believed that when one looks back on life, one should see no sins of omission, only sins of commission, and I have comported myself accordingly.
But back to hot people.
This list of complaints seems like First World problems of the worst kind. Of all the things one could find to complain about, seriously, being hot is now one of them? It’s not enough to have one or more of the laundry list of social neuroses and paranoias that seem to swarm around our modern society like flies around roadkill.
Now, one has to feel bad about being beautiful. Maybe we can get “being hot” added to the list of recognized disabilities for which one can receive government handouts.
If so, it’s not a disability I’m ever going to qualify for. And that’s fine – as long as my wife, who is precisely as cute and adorable as she was when we first met when she was 24, still finds me, well, acceptable. That’s all the consideration I need.
