I stared right into the eyes of my sociology teacher with the utmost indiginance as she asked the class: "Why are boys called handsome but girls beautiful". The reason I was startled was not because of the nature of the question but the way she asked it. It had an underlying tone of sexism, as if this choice of words in itself was the fault of our male-ridden society.
Absolute nonsense. The reason why there are two different words to describe the physical attributes of the two different genders is because they have unique connotations. Beauty is often associated with feminine perfection and vice versa. Now, if in the beginning of time, "handsome" was used to describe a woman, it might have stuck and so men might've been beautiful. A quote from Romeo and Juliet comes to mind when I think of this idea: "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet".
Just to reiterate my point, here's a picture of a fluffy cat:
And here's a picture of a hairy otter:
They've both got hair, so why aren't they both called fluffy or hairy? Are we being animal-ists? Why don't I see any campaigns supporting this cause?
So, my dear sociology teacher, shun your political correctness and shun you ignorance.
Tis' the product of 200,000 years of human evolution:
Logic.
Know the difference.