Never
Come What May
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2000
- Posts
- 23,234
Not long ago, I had the pleasure of meeting the most beautiful woman*.
Previous to interacting with her, my brain categorized female attractiveness thus:
Ugly -> Below Average -> Average -> Good Looking -> Hot
I tossed ladies in there willy-nilly, much like one might sort fruits at the grocers, and was unaware there was a category above Hot. I suspect there wasn’t one until I met her, because it took about a week of seeing her before I realized she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. It may have taken my brain that long to mentally compare her to all the other women in my Hot category and realize I found her better looking than the rest of them or for my hypothalamus to get the rest of my brain to carve out a new pathway.
The problem is that while previously I had a large and diverse best-of category, I now have her, and when I encounter an attractive woman, I’m aware they’re not as attractive as they could be. It’s not that I see flaws in them – I don’t really perceive others as a collection of parts to grade – but instead of being five out of five, they’re now five out of six.
As wonderful as it was meeting and interacting with the most beautiful one, thousands of women have gotten downgraded as a result. This kind of… sucks. I sort of wish I hadn’t met her.
* I don't claim an objective standard here, simply that I find her to be so.
Previous to interacting with her, my brain categorized female attractiveness thus:
Ugly -> Below Average -> Average -> Good Looking -> Hot
I tossed ladies in there willy-nilly, much like one might sort fruits at the grocers, and was unaware there was a category above Hot. I suspect there wasn’t one until I met her, because it took about a week of seeing her before I realized she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. It may have taken my brain that long to mentally compare her to all the other women in my Hot category and realize I found her better looking than the rest of them or for my hypothalamus to get the rest of my brain to carve out a new pathway.
The problem is that while previously I had a large and diverse best-of category, I now have her, and when I encounter an attractive woman, I’m aware they’re not as attractive as they could be. It’s not that I see flaws in them – I don’t really perceive others as a collection of parts to grade – but instead of being five out of five, they’re now five out of six.
As wonderful as it was meeting and interacting with the most beautiful one, thousands of women have gotten downgraded as a result. This kind of… sucks. I sort of wish I hadn’t met her.
* I don't claim an objective standard here, simply that I find her to be so.