The Misguided Celebration of Ugliness

I came across a meme on social media the other day that purported to identify the difference between lust and love in a comic strip. On the lust side, we see an attractive woman dressed in a red nightdress, the strap falling off her arm, as her shirtless boyfriend caresses her body in bed. By contrast, the love side features a frumpily dressed woman eating a burrito in bed, covered in crumbs. Her (not shirtless) boyfriend is staring at her lovingly. Both sides of the comic strip vocalize the man’s inner monologue. “You are the most beautiful person,” he thinks, as he stares at his sexy seductress and his frumpy best friend.

I didn’t think much of it at first. I get the point it’s trying to illustrate in showing the difference between lust and love, even if I’m not a fan of downplaying the importance of sexuality. As I scrolled through online commentary on the image, however, I came across a post that read, “Guilting people into thinking being ugly and disgusting is beautiful has gotta end.”