For Halloween earlier this semester I decided to dress up as a Lady Bug for our class! Literature & the Environment has went over humans and our relationship with the natural world, along with our perceptions of the conceptual wilderness. Lady Bugs, like humans are a part of this natural world. They exist in these spaces with us, and although they are small- they are mighty and are a huge help to farmers as natural pest controllers. In our class, the discussion of beauty has been brought up in relation to mermaids and femininity, mermaids and their alluring looks have been used to craft narratives. People are drawn to beauty. Lady Bugs are part of the beetles family, and yet they often get treated more kindly compared to other bugs all in the name of beauty! Lady Bugs have become aesthetics, with their bright red colors and polka dots. Pretty privilege transcends the human world and is applied to how we treat other living organisms as well. Lady Bugs come in other colors, such as all black, orange, yellow, but it is the red and black polka dotted ones that get the most recognition through media and conversations. Similarly, mermaids are usually depicted as hyper-feminine, pale, white and human-like despite there being rich histories of culturally different mermaids all around the world. My comparison might sound like a stretch, but it’s not!