Gloriana

I am very tired, so very tired, with the exclusive description of girlfriends as "beautiful." This custom seems to promote the idea that the singular quality of beauty can be an appropriate summary of a woman's merit ... even though it may be little more than a lucky boon of nature. God forbid she be praised for other qualities, of greater worth if only because she chose to cultivate them -- her intelligence, humour, charity, charm, grace, eloquence, or devotion. No, she's good to look at and that's all we need to know.

How I envy.

posted at 5:51:18 pm

Gloria
November 9, 2007 07:34 AM PST

All valid points, which I had considered.

While beauty does refer to a kind of spiritual beauty or beauty of compassion, is it not telling that men are seldom described so wholly as "beautiful"? Why is that? But are men not also capable of beautiful behaviour, of that kind of love and nurture that incurs so much of our admiration?

I feel that "beautiful" is thought to aptly describe a woman's virtue because it's the way many women are judged -- through visual attractiveness. It is through a physical metaphor that a woman's inner beauty is expressed and understood. It is only because they are expected to be a visual pleasure that any praise we give them, for whatever virtue, can be summarized in physical terms.

If you meet an unlovely woman for a moment, why does she have to suffer through silence, a rebuke of her lack of striking looks? A more striking woman, in the same instant, already gains positive favour, however minor, in the mind of her new acquaintance. Is it impossible to receive a good impression of a plain woman in a fleeting meeting?
acturi
November 8, 2007 02:50 PM PST

I think beautiful can frequently refer to a whole lot more than the physical. An entirely plain woman can be staggeringly beautiful given the right perspective, especially if its someone you know extremely well. Well enough to look straight at them and not see what's physically there at all.

My wife's incredibly beautiful. Is she actually hot, in the strictest physical sense? I couldn't even tell you. My perceptions are a bit skewed at this point.

Or, like Halcyon, its all he had to go on. Shallow bastard.
Halcyon
November 7, 2007 05:21 PM PST

I'm so shallow I only ever judge peoples merits based on their physical appearances/
Thanks
Deirdre
November 7, 2007 07:15 AM PST

Perhaps when someone uses "beautiful" as a description, they are in fact, taking all of her qualities into consideration. Perhaps.

And then I just read Lee's comment so never-flipping-mind!
Halcyon
November 7, 2007 07:12 AM PST

I don't actually know her and have only spent longer than five minutes in her presence once, so beautiful is all I really had to go on.

J f Z
November 6, 2007 06:57 PM PST

Mute. That would be my preference.

Leave a Comment:

Name

Homepage (optional)

Comments