Flickr has a new feature, a tag they’re calling “interestingness.” I find it a little too cute (Brits have a great word that means “a little too cute”: twee), but it’s a pleasant way to waste a few minutes over lunch. In addition to a lot of interesting landscape and weather photography, there are the predictable images of people’s pets and kids, some obviously staged stuff, and the obligatory and ubiquitous nude model shots.

I find the pets and kids a little boring, but cute enough (pets more so than kids). The staged stuff is generally boring, but again, cute … and the nude models are really just amazingly boring. Oh, look, a young woman with perfect skin and wet hair and nipples. Interesting? No, seriously, not at all. Pretty girls are a dime a dozen. What’s the story there?

Ugly’s interesting. Ugly’s compelling. Show me an ugly girl squatting on a sand dune holding a sea shell. Is she a witch? Is she ship wrecked? An ugly girl sipping coffee in a café and looking wistfully out of the window is intriguing. What’s she thinking? Is she lonely because she’s ugly?

Or old. An old woman cradling her sagging breasts? That’s interesting. That’s got some drama. A young, pretty woman doing it is like “look! titties!” Who cares?

A fat chick pouring milk over her breasts? Way more interesting. Is it a statement on abundance or fecundity or plenty or gluttony?

Pretty girls have a way of injecting vapidity and triteness into visual compositions, and photographers and artists who are just starting out should learn it and embrace it and get with it. And nudes? Seriously, if nudity isn’t developing the plot of your staged composition, have the balls to avoid it. Such a cheap trick.

Pretty girls out there need to suck it up and get over it. Enjoy what you have while you have it, but it’s a cheap and fleeting commodity. Hate to be the one to break it to you.