Post not about disaffectedness

Is calling someone beautiful dehumanizing? It seems to de-center their worth from any intrinsic value they have, re-orienting their value to their inclusion in a group of qualities, features, people culturally condoned to be beautiful. Considering someone beautiful, and valuing them for it removes the issue of difference, their mark on desire, and focuses on their participation in a social system of valuation. It almost seems to value an affirmation of the viewer’s social status more so than anything about the person complimented. To be associated with someone beautiful, almost by definition, confers status and privilege (of some kind or another). “you’re beautiful” requires reference to how someone will be perceived by others, or at least how the speaker came to be conditioned to have this response. Both of these prioritize the experience of the speaker/spoken to in relation to social norms, rather than any specific human, interpersonal connection.

Duncan