Life

Things We'd Rather Hear Than "You're Beautiful"

by Emma Cueto

Right now we seem to be in the midst of a national conversation about street harassment, which is frustratingly overdue, and has also produced some frustrating moments, like CNN guest Steve Santagati mansplaining street harassment to two women. But out of that moment, a silver lining emerged in the form of the #WhatIdRatherHearThanImBeautiful Twitter hashtag, which, despite its length, has become highly popular the past few days. Mostly because it's awesome.

The hashtag is, of course, just one in a long line of street harassment tags that have gained traction on Twitter, including the #DudesGreetingDudes tag that came about during the current national conversation, and hashtags that long predate the recent attention brought on by an illuminating viral video, such as #NotJustHello and #YouOKSis.

The #WhatIdRatherHearThanImBeautiful hashtag, of course, is a reaction to CNN guest Santagati's assertion that "there is nothing more that a woman likes to hear than how pretty she is." Which is so ridiculously off base it's kind of painful. I mean, how does a person justify reducing the goals of millions of people — people who each have their own unique ambitions and preoccupations and multifaceted interests — down to just wanting to hear how good looking we are. That's really what women love more than anything else? Really?

I don't know whether to find it funny or incredibly dehumanizing.

Author Shannon Hale also, understandably, took issue with the idea.

And when her followers began sharing examples of things they'd rather hear than comments about their looks, she created a hashtag for the occasion.

And soon everyone was getting in on the fun.

What about you guys? Anything you'd be more interesting in hearing than "You're beautiful"? I'm guessing we can all come up something. (And by something, I mean a list long enough to rival Santa's.)