Throughout history, the lives of women have undergone significant changes. So radical are these changes, that in many ways the modern woman has little in common with her female ancestors. No longer are we washing our laundry at the riverside or carrying water home from the wells or relying on manual appliances in the kitchen.
But the differences encompass far more than the technological advancements that have changed our lives. Society as a whole, and a woman’s place in it, has drastically evolved through time. But regardless of how momentous the change has been in the lives of women, one thing has remained predictably the same throughout.
Women of all ages, and throughout all of history, have longed to be beautiful and desired. The pursuit of beauty is at the root of a girl’s heart. Little girls are uninhibited in their longing to be admired. Twirling in their skirts, expectant eyes beaming, they openly ask, “Am I pretty?” And although this unconcealed desire to be beautiful and attractive becomes more disguised with age, deep in the heart of every woman, the longing to be deemed beautiful is never extinguished.
The pursuit of beauty has led to an abundant number of beautification methods. These methods are often extreme. Feet binding, eating arsenic, wearing dimple-making devices, applying radioactive lotion, and tattooing or piercing the face and body are only a few of the ways women have attempted to achieve a society’s standard of beauty in the past. But today’s beautification methods are no less extreme. Today, not only are we willing to go under the knife, receive routine injections, or implant foreign objects into our bodies in an attempt to reach society’s beauty standards, but we now feel the need to use AI to enhance our looks by using a variety of beauty filters. It seems as though women will go to any lengths to achieve the goal of beauty.
But the willingness to undergo such drastic measures to achieve beauty does not stem from the innocent, God-given desire to be beautiful. Rather, this willingness comes from an intense pressure from society to fit the current ideal. Women face an inordinate amount of pressure to achieve a certain, specific look to be considered desirable.
One of the problems with the attempt to fulfill a society’s standard of beauty is the fact that the sought-for look is ever changing. While some women have longed for paler skin, others have laid under UVA radiation to achieve a tanned skin tone. Once, the ideal woman was plump, with wide hips and small breasts. This is in stark contrast to the beauty standards of more recent years. The “in” make-up techniques–hair colours, eyebrow shapes, not to mention clothing and accessory fashions–are also constantly changing. The result is a world of women who are endlessly and painfully pursuing beauty as elusively as if pursuing the proverbial carrot on a stick.
The pressure to achieve the current benchmark of beauty is so intense that the world is surprised when a woman is able to resist its influence. Pamela Anderson’s recent decision to make appearances sans make-up is an example of this. The fact that she is appearing in public as her authentic self has made international headlines. How strange to live in a world where presenting oneself without a cosmetically enhanced face is seen as an extraordinary act of courage!
Sadly, this pressure to conform to a specific ideal of beauty goes far beyond only achieving a certain physical look. The beauty ideal also exerts pressure on today’s women to be publicly sensual, sexy, and downright lewd at times. Although couched in feel-good messages about free expression and women’s liberty, attaining this “freedom” has unfortunately resulted in women becoming mere objects of sexual pleasure, robbed of their God-given dignity and honour. In reality, this illusory beauty presented to us as the ideal has little to no semblance to true beauty.
While many have heard it said “beauty is pain,” true beauty does not require its possessor to subject himself to painful or toxic procedures to attain it. It does not require its owner to be exploited and objectified in order to secure it. True beauty encompasses so much more than achieving certain physical traits or measurements.
Attempting to achieve society’s criteria of beauty leaves its pursuers anxious, devalued, and ever afraid of losing the race to age. In contrast, true and authentic beauty engenders honour, respect, and serenity to both its possessor and its beholder. What’s more, true beauty transcends age.
The Scriptures exhort women to be discreet, chaste, and modest (Titus 2:5; 1 Timothy 2:9). Many might feel that such exhortation is oppressive to women, stifling a woman’s self-expression and sexuality. Nothing could be further from the truth. Rather, modesty elevates the ability for a woman to express her full and authentic self, without being limited and restricted to being a mere object of sexual enjoyment. Being discreet and chaste in no way obstructs her ability to express her God-given sexuality. Rather, it enables her sexuality to be expressed freely in the safe, non-exploitative, and uninhibited presence of a loving husband. Indeed, the Bible’s ideal of a beautiful woman is the standard that truly enables a woman to reach the fullest expression of her God-given beauty.
It is difficult to express the feeling of finding such wholesome beauty after being surrounded and immersed with fake, plastic, and unnatural imitations of beauty. It might be akin to enjoying a deep breath of fresh air, or sinking into an embrace at the end of a long, stressful day. Or the feeling of returning home after a lengthy absence. It is the feeling perhaps best expressed with a heartfelt, “Ah! This, this is how it’s supposed to be.” Such is the feeling of coming in the presence of true, authentic, and noble beauty.
Even more difficult is attempting to describe the feeling of liberty when one stops chasing society’s unachievable, ever changing beauty ideal in exchange for the pure, modest, and honourable beauty given to us by God. Once exchanged, the difference is striking. No longer does a woman feel as if she is merely perceived as an object of lustful pleasure, but she finds herself treated with dignity, respect, and wholesome admiration.
Oh, that every woman would find liberty from the oppressive rat race that is the pursuit of society’s standard of beauty! It is time we stop telling the precious girls of today that they’re beautiful just the way they are, while plastering ourselves with cosmetics and undergoing the plethora of beautification procedures in the attempt to achieve an unreachable criterion of beauty. It is time for this world to see an army of women rise up in demonstration of what it is to be truly feminine and beautiful in all our modest and virtuous glory!
