Responding to two questions that people have asked in recent reviews (if you ask me stuff civilly, I'll be willing to respond like this):

"What, exactly, do you consider ugly? And what do you consider to be beautiful?"

To be honest, I'm unsure of how this isn't something that can be pieced together by what I've put in my stories already, but I'll elaborate for the sake of it anyway.

For starters, it's important to note that this isn't what I think is ugly-looking, this is a fairly objective. "Conventionally good-looking" is more or less societal code-speak for "actually good-looking", and consequently, "conventionally unattractive looking" is societal code-speak for "actually looks bad, but some people are idiots who might like you anyway". With that out of the way, it's fairly simple to understand what I consider to be beautiful vs. what I consider to be ugly. Conventional attractiveness is fairly key.

Symmetry in the face, smooth skin-these things are indicators of "conventional" (note: objective) beauty. Lack thereof is an indication of someone lacking beauty, and the possession of the direct opposite of these traits, such as asymmetry in the face (wonky facial features) or flaky skin, is an indication of direct ugliness.

I do think it's important to note here, two things though, simply because I know they'll be brought up:

Firstly, there is a distinction between subjective and objective appearance. Stuff like the smoothness of skin, and the structure of a person's face and skull are objective qualifiers of beauty. However, when it comes to something like, for example, blonde hair, and blue eyes, that goes into the more subjective territory. You might notice in my "Mother's Superior Beauty" story that I indicate that Ann abuses her daughter because she didn't come out with beautiful blonde hair and blue eyes; while I do think that this someone not having blonde hair and blue eyes is objectively a bad thing, I wouldn't go so far as to call it absolute.

There is overlap, in the sense that a person with black hair and grey eyes can be prettier than a person with blonde-hair; for example, Yukiko is prettier than the average person, but she isn't blonde. The indication here is more about superior beauty as a whole concept-Like, I think Ann is a good example of that, as she's a good example of a character who obviously objectively meant to be more good-looking than the rest of the cast, despite her beauty being subjective at the same time When you have that level of conflict involved between the objective and subjective, it's a very clear indication of societal bent.

In the "Mother's Superior Beauty" story, Mindy's primary problem was that she wasn't pretty, and also didn't have blonde hair or blue eyes, which Ann detested. But if she had been pretty, even without blonde hair and blue eyes, Ann would've more or less been able to get over her daughter's lack of blonde-hair, as she'd have still been someone who possess worth in her appearance, even if not beauty superiority. In that sense, while I think that blonde-hair and blue eyes are what is necessary for superior beauty in humans in the long run, I don't think it's a simple matter of "if you have blonde hair and blue eyes, you're better than those who don't"; again, to use Persona as an example, Ryuji is objectively not as good-looking as Haru is, despite him having blonde hair, whereas Haru doesn't. This is what sets my ideology apart from, say, that of the nazi party, who believed in a pure master race.

As for the second thing: I think that's important to understand that there are definitely some people who more subjective in how you can gauge their appearance than other people. However, there are definitely a great number of people who are simply objectively unattractive looking, who are on the lower end of the scale. These people are the people my ideology against ugly people is more aimed at; although I do want to strive for a distinct idea of beauty as a necessity in people, I think that it's important to focus on the objectively worthless people first.

Anyway, I believe that physical beauty-conventionally, objective physical beauty, is vitally important. And, ignoring subjective factors entirely, I think that people grasp exactly how toxic a lack of physical beauty is. I also believe that physical beauty is more important than anything a person can feel or express inside; there is nothing that can be done about this, so all humanity can strive to achieve is to reach out to superior beauty as much as it can. In that sense, we need to crush those who actively go against this and who possess no worth in their appearance at all.

The objectively and utterly obviously ugly people (particularly, I might add, those with facial deformities or other forms of physical defect) just need to go-as they possess no worth or value at all, and are only dragging our race down.

"Have you had therapy?"

Yes, for reasons unrelated to my cacophobia.

I was diagnosed with BPD, but that was over a decade ago, and frankly, I still feel like it was an incorrect diagnoses. I've never really like the mental health services around where I live. They've been useless, and I can't get on with them at all.

I just got through with a counselling session a few months back, but it didn't lead to anything.