Character is Sexy

Character is what really matters. As JR Miller once observed, ‘The only thing that walks back to the tomb with the mourners and refuses to be buried is the character of a man’.

As I look around, I'm bombarded with attractive men on billboards, tv shows, in bands and groups, in advertisements, walking around London, and I just think to myself "meh... so what?"

Everywhere I look, women and men are trying to be fitter, sexier, "healthier" (read, hotter), and yet, do we have character? Integrity? Wisdom?

The aphorism of the week being pandered around facebook, twitter, newspapers, etc. is E.O. Wilson's aphorism: "We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom." 

The shallowness of information, even really good information, doesn't replace the connection in your soul when you've touched wisdom, when you've met integrity, when you've seen character.

Yet the face of character, integrity, wisdom, may not always be a pretty one. Many old tales have the "hidden beauty" aspect. Think Beast from Beauty and the Beast, think the loathsome hag in The Wife of Bath's Tale (The Canterbury Tales). Think of Lamia, Dracula and other monsters disguised as beautiful creatures and even Satan, who poses as and once was an angel of light.

Things are not always as they seem.

Leo Tolstoy famously wrote "It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness." 

I look around at the men of the city and I want to see goodness, strength, and courage in their actions, not in their clothing or merely their words. 

Logan just wants to remember who he is,
where he's from, and the girl he once loved
who betrayed him. 

Of course, we've been fed the delusion through films as well, where the handsome but misunderstood man really has a heart of gold, he's usually played by Hugh Jackman... lol

No, but really, while the physique of Hugh's not bad, (or insert other hunky literary/film heroes), it's their deeds, their ideologies, their fight that wins us over in the end.

It's why not matter how many muscles the men on The Real Jersey Shore have, or how rich the guys on Made in Chelsea are, really, they leave us with a bad taste in our mouths (metaphorically speaking) because they don't have much to offer OTHER than those defining characteristics (and, ya know, the fact that they're on tv).

So fellas, though bouldering on your abs would probably be fun, I'm much more interested in your intelligence, passions, and definitely, your integrity.