Art and beauty

  I want to write about something that pisses me off but I don't know if I can properly express how I feel on the subject so I'm just going to say my thing briefly and leave it at that. There is a lot of social stigma sometimes, especially in certain places, that admiring women for their physical appearance is objectifying them. Now I can understand that point of view of that person is someone you meet and interact with and you have the opportunity to know them more as a person since physical appearance is just once facet of a person, but what about someone you just see a picture of? Does seeing a piece of art via a picture invalidate your appreciation of it (bad analogy I know), why can't the physical beauty of a person be admired? If that is the only way you will ever know this person why is it wrong?

  To someone who above all else tries to treat people as he himself would like to be treated and is ashamed if I fail to meet those standards this just seems strange to me. Yes there are people who are idiots and do objectify people but that doesn't mean that all of us do and should be condemned for admiring what you see. My wife often asks who I find beautiful and/or sexy and I tell her when I see people that I find so. She understands who I am and how I can feel that way about people but still be respectful of them as people. She understands if I "stare" at someone when out on the street without feeling ignored or admire a picture of someone I see, heck she even sends me pictures of people as well.

  I don't know why I'm writing all this but it just pisses me off that people get upset about this. Everyone is a person worth knowing in some way (other than the idiots out there of which there are a lot :-) ) even if you don't like them as a person. You will never find the few people you really do like in life if you don't at least look. I spent a long time when I was younger avoiding people and it is something I really should not have done.

  Man, I write a lot of crap sometimes don't I? I think I will go find a nice picture of a person I don't know and have no chance of knowing and add it to this post in a bit just because I can and it will please me.