Cute, pretty, beautiful, attractive – which describes you?

There was a time when I aspired to be devastatingly beautiful. I would wear so much make-up that people would actually comment on the street when I passed by that I was wearing too much make-up. However their comments didn’t stop me from transforming my face daily with thick layers of foundation, face powder, exaggerated eye-liner, caked-on mascara and bright red lipstick trying to make myself beautiful.

I remember the first time I asked someone if I was cute, pretty or beautiful and they said I wasn’t cute, pretty or beautiful. It was a substitute teacher named Mr. Calhoun.

When Mister Calhoun said he would use the word attractive to describe me it completely devastated me.

I could have lived with pretty if not beautiful, or cute if neither beautiful nor pretty, but attractive? Attractive didn’t sit too well with me.

These days I realize that a woman can be cute, pretty or beautiful without necessarily being attractive; so maybe having Mr. Calhoun calling me attractive was not such a bad thing after all.

Image: Beautiful Woman by ellievanhoutte via Flickr