Why is Halle Berry Considered Such a Great Beauty?

Throw a Frisbee at the Beach in My Hometown and it Will Bounce Off at Least a Dozen More Attractive Women

Timothy Sexton
Timothy Sexton, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Aug 18, 2006 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
Why is Halle Berry considered such hot stuff? Why is Halle Berry considered such a beautiful woman; such a sex symbol; such a great actress? Frankly, I'm flummoxed. I'll put aside her alleged acting talent for the moment mainly because I haven't seen most of her movies. Still, from what I have seen, I'm underwhelmed. So underwhelmed am I by Halle Berry's acting chops that it also stuns me when I come across the X-Men moves during their weekly appearance on FX. You see, even though I actually did see the first two X-Men movies in the theater, I always forget that Halle Berry was even in it; such is her forgettability.

But let's focus on Halle Berry the great beauty. Maybe I just happen to live in a town with an unfairly high number of attractive women, but on any average day I come across at least a half dozen different females whom I consider to be far more attractive than Miss Berry. I'm not saying she's ugly or anything. I am saying she's thoroughly, unimaginatively plain.

There are any number of actresses far more beautiful than Halle Berry. But to hear how people go on and on about her you would think Halle Berry is a combination of Greta Garbo, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Raquel Welch. I just don't get it. My wife think Halle Berry is gorgeous. I think my wife is roughly ten times more beautiful. At the very least.

I think the case of Halle Berry as a great beauty is model example of how celebrity and popularity can turn someone who wouldn't even win a high school beauty contest into an icon of beauty. You see it all the time, it's not just Halle Berry who benefits from it. And it isn't even just women. I mean can you imagine Steven Tyler of Aerosmith fame even getting a date if he wasn't famous? His is the kind of face that normally would be used to scare young kids away from walking down dark alleys at night. And remember when a good looking guy used to be tagged a "Baldwin" by young women back in the 90s? This was in reference to the Baldwin brothers, who used to be famous actors. Well, at least one of them did; the others were not exactly famous, but did occasionally appear in mostly bad movies. I never got that. I mean, sure, Alec Baldwin used to sort of good looking and Billy Baldwin had a certain pretty boy quality to him, but c'mon, the rest of that family was butt-ugly. How the heck did they ever get to the status of icon by comparison?

Not that I'm comparing the utter lack of attractiveness on Steven Tyler's (or Stephen or Daniel Baldwin) part to Halle Berry. As I said, I don't consider Halle Berry ugly. She's just no great beauty is all. If you're expecting this to evolve into a philosophic or political statement as much of my opinion pieces on pop culture do, I'm afraid you will be disappointed. I just wanted to get this off my chest.

I just really, really, really do not get why Halle Berry is considered such a great beauty.

Published by Timothy Sexton - Featured Contributor in Arts & Entertainment

Timothy Sexton was named this site's very first Writer of the Year. Today he has several columns on Yahoo Movies and a weekly column on The Simpsons on Yahoo TV. He has published over 8,000 articles coverin...   View profile

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  • Yelu O 10/22/2011

    I guess I could see how someone could say she's not all that. She is kind of plain, but she is pretty. Something about her face does not really make her stand out. Maybe it's because she has brown hair and brown eyes, usually that combo makes someone not stand out as much.

  • Samira Fierce IV 10/19/2011

    well because ... humm ... DUH .. SHE IS GORGEOUS ! she has a great body, a beautiful face, a wonderful skin tone, she's 45, has a kid, and still HOT !I love her, she's a beauty. I hate when dark-skinned women get #$%$ when a mixed woman is considered beautiful.

  • Margarita Perez 6/19/2011

    I am a black woman and I agree that she's considered beutiful just because she has white features. She's ok but I don't think she is beautiful. It's all about media

  • Opa 4/12/2011

    Halle Berry is UGLYYY. Why is she even in Hollywood, ugly mujh.

  • ann 2/27/2011

    Thank you. I thought I was the only one in the world that didn't think she was beautiful. She is pretty

  • Guest 2/22/2011

    Dita Von Teese, Catherine Zeta Jones, these are a couple of women that have the great beauty like stars of the past, Halle Berry, not so much. Today it's all media exaggeration. Today's hollywood is not that beautiful in comparison to the past. Don't know why they can't find any amazing beauties (male or female) anymore.

  • Kell 2/22/2011

    I agree, I never saw what all the fuss was about Berry either. She's certainly pretty, but I definitely didn't see her as a goddess in the looks department like she is portrayed. She had good agents and publicists I guess

  • Dundee 2/1/2011

    Agree with you 1,000 %

  • tai 1/16/2011

    How important is it?

  • Kappa 1/4/2011

    She's not pretty to you because she's black.

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