I’ve said this before, but I think people need to spend a little more time actually considering the meaning of “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”

as a statement about where beauty is… and where it is not

“beautiful” isn’t real, because beauty isn’t something you can be full of. It isn’t a characteristic that any person or thing can have.

It’s a reaction that someone else has

…or a reaction that you have, if you see beauty in yourself. But whether you do or not, you still have to think about who is seeing the beauty.

language messed up, in treating “beauty” like a noun and “beautiful” like an adjective, instead of just having a verb that means “to appreciate something aesthetically.”

because that’s what the concept is.

sure, we can joke about someone or something being “objectively beautiful”… but try and remember it is a joke, because beauty is inherently 100% subjective.

If you say something’s beautiful, that inherently implies a beholder, a person who appreciates the beauty

Which usually isn’t a problem, because usually if you say something’s beautiful, you’re implying that the beholder is you, and just stating your own appreciation of it

But… if you are making a general, sweeping statement like “everyone is beautiful,” without specifying who finds each person beautiful… then you are making a meaningless statement

and people who are insecure about their own attractiveness are completely aware of that.