Some scattered observations about aging, beauty, women, etc

of course the only real beauty out there is in mathematics

At The Point, they’re running an issue on “beauty,” which I’ve only read a little of (my friend Becca Rothfeld is in it). But last night somebody sent me this other piece from the issue—Grazie Sophia Christie’s “My Beautiful Friend,” which explores the envy between women over their looks—which I found a little over the top.

It is not easy to write personally about personal beauty. Because the potential cases are: you are yourself a very beautiful person (in which case nobody wants to hear it); you are a beautiful person who is very insecure and deals with this by declaring yourself ugly (in which case nobody wants to hear it); or you look pretty normal (in which case nobody wants to hear it). There’s no real position from which to discuss these subjects that doesn’t make people dislike you.

And then envy is probably the most interesting vice of our times—in t…