"You Are So Beautiful..."

"...besides the features you got from your father."

Yet another awesome bit of conversation I overheard, except this time it was in the middle of the student union.

While enjoying lunch on campus, a girl (who I can only assume is a college student) decided  to share this statement with her two friends.  All three laughed, so I am not sure what context the sentence was really meant in, but really?

I don't know how you even come up with a sentence like that.  The idea of beauty is based on an individual perception, which can be influenced by society, but for the most part still comes down to what an single person finds attractive.  That being said, to tell someone they are beautiful implies that the beauty is collective, encompassing the physical, and sometimes personality, traits of that person.  It seems pretty ridiculous that someone would call someone beautiful, only to then restrict this beauty to certain features (whether they are physical or not).  Why not just say the person has beautiful eyes or hair or teeth and just start with the specific instead of creating this circumstantial compliment?  It seems like a slap in the face to whoever is being addressed.

And yet, the restriction goes a step further to include only traits which were inherited from the subject's father.  Why only the father's traits?  Are they so distinct, so clearly "not beautiful", that they can be pointed to as the blemishes in this person's beauty?

Of course, I am over-analyzing what is probably an inside joke among friends.  But if you are going to have loud conversations in public, then you should anticipate being heard and judged.