As much as our culture idolizes beauty, it also thinks it’s shallow and superficial. But both of these evaluations get something wrong. The idea of beauty as only skin-deep is based on a long-debunked division between body and soul. Yet the fleeting admiration of a stranger’s beauty also misses the point. True appreciation of beauty takes attention, care, and love, argues David Egan. 

Beauty is only skin deep, we’re told. It’s superficial to be too concerned about surfaces and deep to love the depths of a person’s character. Stories like Beauty and the Beast and The Wife of Bath’s Tale emphasize the importance of seeing past a person’s outward appearance to their inner beauty.