Our culture idolizes physical appearances and superficial features, from a celebrity to any woman walking down the street. Women are barked at and made fun of for not fitting the Barbie model. Once “thigh gaps” were the norm, social media quickly flooded with posts and pictures from females objectifying their bodies. Many girls use these outlets to accentuate their outer beauty and feel noticed by the community. However, in reality, how important is physical appearance compared to the vast, complex beauty that lies within the inner workings of a human mind?

I imagine a world in a another dimension where people live differently. These beings wouldn’t be bound to one physical form when they were born. In fact, their outward appearance would be dictated by their actions and whether they were a good person or not. In other words, good people would be beautiful and bad people would be ugly. Although this world wouldn’t be that different from ours, it would still have an obsession for beauty. Essentially, spreading goodness to retain one’s beauty would be a major mission in most people’s lives and immoral actions would be looked down upon because they would be visible in the form of deformities.

Could you imagine a place where everyone lived to spread joy to others because they would benefit immediately? It would be an endless cycle of happiness and good deeds reciprocated by everyone who wished to stay presentable. In this world, beauty is created by the mind. This fantasy world suggests another facet of beauty that could far surpass any physical appearance. In my imagination, the soulmates in this world would look somewhat like twins, sharing the same mind and personality.

This wonky world accentuates the personalities of people rather than just the physical appearance. Physical appearance shouldn’t trump one’s personality and individual traits – beauty lies in one’s personality. For example, for me, I feel that musical tastes can tell me more things about a person as opposed to their physical appearance. The idea of having a physical “type” of girl or guy doesn’t really make sense because someone could have undesired physical features along with an identical personality.

I believe one’s interests, hobbies, passions, fears and beliefs can illuminate a part of their body and exceed the beauty of any physical trait, the soul. One’s soul is what truly defines their beauty. A beautiful man would perpetually be looked upon with disgust if he was guilty of heinous crimes, just as a woman who lies cannot seem sweet and innocent anymore. So here’s food for thought: Where does true beauty lie?

Pedro Acosta is a Medill freshman. He can be reached at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected].