Well, for me it's that while I realize my peers will judge me on my looks at least first impression wise, that just gives me the cue that they are not yet the kind of people that I'd want long term interactions with.
And frankly, I'd be lying to myself if I pretended like I'd gotten myself to the point where I genuinely don't care about other people's appearances. It's just that I realized a few years ago that it's unfair for me to do so and have since then been doing my best to rework that first-impression aspect of my thoughts. It's working, but it's slow going and it'll take a while.
You don't really sound vain. *Shrug* I liked your rant though. Now the bit about body as a temple - there's no reason for a temple's beauty to be that skin deep, I think. If you have other beauty, then it's a nice bonus, but ultimately I don't think it should be an objective. Heck, since I got confirmation from the Omni's here that I can hold my astral body in whatever shape I want to (Edit: Before that I just thought we were all dimensionless, and the best abstraction was as oscillating spheres or something - then I got a nice refreshing slap in the face that there's actual 'biology' to a soul, etc.), I've been willing to get myself to be in the default form of a sphere. I'm sure I might subconsciously still take form of what I look like physically, but to me, that's better. Edit: Actually, no, that's wrong. I usually don't care what my astral body has as a form - only in moments that I do find myself caring I briefly will myself to go into a spherical shape. It's already slime-mold/ameoba -like when it comes to behavior anyway. And if I'm being good and attentive, I should never have no tendrils out to probe things. But, if someone asked, I'd probably say sphere (well, unless LordArt asked. Then I'd say I keep my astral body in the form of Jabba the Hutt or the Swamp Monster, depending on which came to mind first). I guess I just meant I try to not keep it in a particularly 'beautiful' by human standards form.
At any rate, if there is a reason for disliking 'beauty' in the conventional sense it's, in my eyes, the fact that by pursuing it you're allowing the entire cluster of social phenomena that revolve around beauty to exist, most of which are biased. There's nothing really wrong with beauty or liking or perceiving it by itself, but in context of the whole of humanity right now, it seems to me better to do otherwise. So even without magic, I think I'd still hold my views. Yes, we have to live in this world on earth with a bunch of other humans, many of whom don't bother going beyond that first-impression-based-on-attractiveness stage. But given that we know that this kind of social norm causes undue suffering and bias against those who are less attractive, it seems to me that's something we should work to change, not leave to be the way it is just because that's the way things are.
At any rate, I think there's far better ways of viewing beauty than the current social norms for it. Like, when it comes to physical aesthetic - well, I can't vouch for other mages, but I certainly do have a physical aesthetic of sorts - one built around physical prowess, fitness, and ability - all of which is to me far more important then appearance per se. And frankly, when judging something as beautiful nowadays I tend to think about it in those terms more so than 'attractiveness' of the sort the human brain typically judges. Take slime molds, for instance. Beautiful to me. Not really pleasant to touch, sure, but there's a beauty to the chemical and biological intricacy which makes them function the way they do.
But that all being what it is, I can't really argue with you picking #1.
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