A sunset, a white rose, a galloping horse, the eyes of a woman, a newborn baby, a full moon. There is beauty all around us. It captures our attention, distracts us, absorbs us. How does this work?
Beauty is infused into so many things, and it's by design--both the beauty itself and the capacity to appreciate it. God is beauty itself, and He left a piece of Himself in so many different ways.
We humans want to be close to beauty; we want to possess it. More often than not, it possesses us. By design.
Beauty has taken a hit these days. We've been fed a line about an external standard against which women are held up and measured.
ReplyDeleteSo those women who don't measure up are held prisoner by their inadequacies, and those who do are cursed to walk all their days wondering why they aren't taken seriously or respected deeply.
Women (adults, teens) in America are caught between a rock and a hard place, and this includes the portion of women in the Body of Christ who chase the world's idea of beauty, of having "it" and/or "THE look".
ReplyDeleteAmerican society has become so sex-minded (not love minded), that every stinkin' commercial now on tv, every poster in every clothing store you see in the malls, screams of this "it" look that women are to aspire to have and be.
So, they chase it. They pursue it. They spend millions, and deprive themselves, to get "it"--THE look, as portrayed by the media. They will do anything, or nearly anything.
Then, once they get it, guys start gawking. Then when guys gawk, the women feel like sex objects because of the stares. So, the great lie reveals itself, but they (females) sometimes still don't understand the lie.
"Wait a minute, I worked so hard and now have the look, but it is only drawing this shallow gawking from these hound-dog men left and right."
I see this look in so many young girls' eyes in the mall, in the grocery store. They are wearing the fashions they are blindly led by others to wear, which are tighter and more revealing than twenty years ago. I may notice their bodies from afar before they see me, but when I get close to walk by them I always look at their face and their eyes.
They very often have a look of uncomfortableness emanating from them. They dress the way they dress cause they want the attention from attraction, yet when they get the attraction they feel like they are sex objects, for the males staring at them. It is very rare to pass a girl (who has the current "look") who thoroughly admires the idea she is being noticed for her beauty.
There is a rampant uneasiness in their expressions. It's verification of how shallow (sex based, not love based) American society is. And the act of being noticed/lusted/observed, whichever it is, brings queasiness to their expression. They wanted attention. They worked hard to get it. Then when they get "it" the outcome is the barrage of lust by most males--shallow, empty, vain and increasingly dangerous.
And yet they keep doing it. Wearing those same tight clothes/fashions. They witness the lie. Yet they keep living it.