Thank you for taking the time to read and comment, Chris.

If you're citing Priyanka Chopra as irrefutable proof of the hotness of Indian women, then maybe times really have changed! She is quite striking.

In the essay, you'll notice that I'm mostly sharing my experience with dating 10-20 years ago. And in my experience, which of course is limited and biased as is all individual experience, I never received the message from guys that my Indianness or brownness made me beautiful. Things may be different now, as both you and I point out. I hope so.

In terms of women always telling each other we're beautiful, don't worry--most of us have enough self-awareness to know where we fall on society's spectrum of beauty (which is applied differently to women than it is to men). When I tell my friend she looks "gorgeous" after her new haircut, she doesn't actually believe she's morphed into a Jenner or that she should look like one.

Beauty is subjective, in the eye of the beholder. In calling each other beautiful, I believe many of us women are not deluding ourselves or giving ourselves false hope that we meet society's standard of beauty. We may actually see each other as beautiful. My mother, for example, despite what our society says, will always be beautiful to me. My friends, none of whom would meet society's narrow standard of beauty, are beautiful to me. What you see as an overweight, tired 40-year-old, I see as a hardworking single mom who's one of the funniest, smartest, and most generous women I know. I will always see her as beautiful. When you see one of my friends who was born with a birth defect where one of her eyes is smaller than the other, all you may see is this defect, but I see her kindness and patience as an elementary school teacher in one of the poorest neighborhoods in our city. She is beautiful to me. When we prop a friend up with "you look beautiful," this is the kind of beauty many of us are acknowledging.

Even if you don't agree with my perspective, given everything that's going on right now, I'd hope you'd agree that there are worse things in the world than women finding this kind of beauty in one another.

Although I could be wrong (and please correct me if I am), I'm going to assume that you're a white guy. And if you are, and you're singing Priyanka Chopra's praises--thank you. I'm glad you're out there.