Hot, sexy, sensual? What happened to beautiful?
“He called me beautiful” wailed my 16 year old sister. I being her sister asked her what was wrong with that. “Beautiful is for aunties, I want to be called sexy” she sobbed. I was shocked! I felt sorry for the poor lad who called my sister beautiful, he would probably be thinking where he went wrong. After calming her down, I asked my sister again why she didn’t want to be called beautiful. “Beautiful, cute, pretty; these are words people use to describe babies and oldies or they use them just to be polite. Everyone knows, we girls like being called hot or sexy”, she explained. Was it just her? No. All her friends and school mates thought the same. I asked her what was so intriguing about being called sexy. ”Obviously didi, sexy is so cool. It sounds so mature. You don’t see Katrina being called beautiful or Kareena being called pretty. A woman must be sexy not beautiful.” She continued.
Oxford describes sexy as any object of sexual attraction. It definitely doesn’t mention mature anywhere. Most girls and boys don’t know the literal meaning of hot or sexy or sensual. The usage of this word by our youth is mostly because of the influence of the media and silver screen. Anyone physically attractive is described using raunchy terms. It’s not uncommon to see social media flooded with pictures captioned “sexy shirt” or “hot headphones”. No wonder my sister was so upset, if those inanimate objects were termed as above, she deserved much more. But many fail to understand that to be described beautiful is so much better than sexy or hot. If you start wearing skimpy clothes or just happened to be the ones with a great body, you’ll be termed sexy. And nothing is wrong with that too! But beautiful, that is something else. I am not against these adjectives but something is wrong when teenagers want to be seen as sexual objects or use the phrase just because it’s “cool”.
But listen up ladies, there is a line of difference between beautiful and hot. We are strong ladies of the 20th century not a plate of ‘samosas’. When you call me pretty”, I know you are talking about how despite those imperfect eyebrows or that wide nose, I look so pleasant. When you call me seductive, I look down to see if my cleavage shows. When you call me lovely, I know it’s my sense of humor or my weird singing. When you call me hot, I need to check if I am wearing those tight clothes. When you call me stunning, I know you mean my smile. When you call me risque, I wonder what was said that you want to invite yourself over. When you call me beautiful, I know that I look great. When you call me sexy, you see everything but not my soul.
————–
About the Author: This article is contributed by Sweta, our intern.
Also read: Women rock: Check out this video!
