What is your most attractive feature?

[Phoebe]

Well? What is it? I think most of us here could stand to ponder whatever it is that's good about ourselves in that respect. I don't want to hear about how we're nice people or good at heart or some b*******, I want to know what is superficially, undeniably most attractive. There's something.
I will get back to you on what that is over here. I have lost sight of the answer.

[Kyle]

My right calf looks super fit. Like a grapefruit on my lower leg. My left calf doesn’t look that way, but it also doesn’t have an inflatable boot pushing the muscle up for nine weeks.

[Akiva]

My wife says I look like a serial killer. Does that count?

[Phoebe]

I feel like you're not embracing the spirit of this thing. If she thinks that the serial killer looks attractive, then yes this could count. Does she say this to you when you clamber up near her in a state of undress with a pointed expression? Is it maybe an eyebrow thing? It could be a sign that you're most attractive feature is your eyebrows.

Kyle, I'm going to let this pass just because it's important that you find ways to appreciate your leg while it's wearing the boot. If you have to wear the boot you might as well like the look of your leg in it. My husband has overheard me and I cannot continue at this point because he's commenting on your testicles.

[Phoebe]

I'm really serious about this people. I hear that the people of our ages are all depressed and no longer particularly excited about themselves, assuming they were ever that excited about their attractive features to begin with. But most of us do improve with age at least in some ways and there is something good... And I don't mean the powers of your beautiful mind but I mean there is something attractive about you in a superficial way that you ought to take a small and measured amount of pleasure in once in a while. If you already think you're awesome then this exercise is not necessary.

I was pondering because I felt it unseemly to discuss THE most attractive features, and also somewhat unfair to include magical devices. Worse yet, my eyes and eyebrows have both shrunk AND become round and buggy in some weird way that makes them less attractive than they used to be, and it feels unpleasantly strange to no longer have your most attractive feature be an attractive feature at all. But today I have struck upon it by accident:

I went to the grocery store and accidentally forgot my ID because I had switched it to another bag in order to get trussed up in a gown and fulfill my obligatory social role as the spouse. I attempted to buy a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, possibly for Thursday night's scheduled festivities with minions of a runelord. But reader, the toddler who was checking me out carded me and would not sell me the alcohol just in case! I get it, he's nuts and I was wearing a covid mask, though at least he did better than the grocery bagging gal who did not understand that eggs are breakable. Still, his confusion reminded me that in this advanced age I don't really have wrinkles! Part of it is Mom and part of it is daily sunscreen. Maybe part of it is being too fat and thus plumping out the face. The cause doesn't matter; the important effect is that my most attractive feature is no longer eyes but skin in general. This is nothing short of miraculous for a person who still feels like that teenager who was struggling with acne all those years. Some kind of poetic justice maybe - All those tears about having a disgusting face and now look at this smooth baby skin.

[poorpete]

This is an admirable thread but I haven't thought much about it. Maybe i should

[Akiva]

I honestly don't know. Maybe my eyes? My legs? Never felt particularly attractive, and still don't.

[Phoebe]

Okay now you're talking and we've got something to work with. You probably are not giving your legs adequate love because let's face it, how often do you get down there in the shower or under the comforter or whatever and really examine them in a positive light? Are you checking your legs out adequately in order to praise them? I'm guessing no. But I'm also guessing if you can swim there must be something good about that leg. The shower or whenever you're swimming is probably the right time to assess it. Speaking from my vantage point as a lady, I'll just say there are some key things to look for: any kind of line or sign of a muscle, but not a super defined one which gets to be a little much. We are not wanting Arnold Schwarzenegger up in here. We just want the gentle angle above the knee or between the large and small part of the calf (check out my detailed anatomy knowledge yo). Any type of nice bend where the hip joins the rest of the body, any kind of graduated progression of the leg hair from lighter to heavier coverage... All of these things are potentially good! But I can't guess which one of them you may have so you're going to have to examine your own leg. Sometimes knees are good too, and ankles and the way that the whole ankle connects to the shin - Don't overlook these connecting areas in your inspection for the good!

Eyes I think is very simple - you just have to ask anybody around you if you have good looking eyes. I have a vague memory of seeing a photo of you and I'm pretty sure not 100% but like 98% that you have a really good eyebrow situation. Almost 98% sure of this.

[Mando]

I think you need a thread where we ask our partners what is most attractive about us. I have a feeling mine would say "You used to have......."

[Phoebe]

You have struck upon part of the point here: if your partner is telling you about your attractive features all the time, such that you do not need the self-diagnostic exercise conducted here, then you're good. Go forward and reciprocate! Or I guess you could impress upon that person the need to get specific with some comments? We all deserve to have at least a few things about ourselves we find beautiful, and again, not just the mind or the efficiency of our ability to clean pet messes.

[Akiva]

Eyes I think is very simple - you just have to ask anybody around you if you have good looking eyes. I have a vague memory of seeing a photo of you and I'm pretty sure not 100% but like 98% that you have a really good eyebrow situation. Almost 98% sure of this.

I have fairly furry eyebrows--wife says I look like Brezhnev.

[Mando]

Eyes I think is very simple - you just have to ask anybody around you if you have good looking eyes. I have a vague memory of seeing a photo of you and I'm pretty sure not 100% but like 98% that you have a really good eyebrow situation. Almost 98% sure of this.

I have fairly furry eyebrows--wife says I look like Brezhnev.

[Mando]

My wife gave me an answer: my dimples.

[Phoebe]

Good answer, ten points to the wife!! It's true we are helpless in the face of dimples. They are devastating.