“If I am beautiful, people will love me.”
This is the myth sold by many American businesses, bought by people everywhere, and perpetuated by our society.
We tell girls and women that they are beautiful if we love them. Therefore, we as women seek to be beautiful, so that we may be loved. I think regretfully of all the lost hours, money, and energy poured into vanity for sake of love. Who would we be if appearance truly did not matter? What would we be doing instead?
While I'm putting on mascara and blow-drying my hair in the morning as I'm getting ready for class, I think about how one of my male classmates, unconcerned with vain rituals, is reading the front page of The New York Times. OK, maybe he is expected to shave, but no one would question him for neglecting to do so for a week. But, if I showed up without mascara, would they question me? “Are you feeling alright?” “You look kind of tired. Late night?” Maybe I would not be taken as seriously, or I would be called “unprofessional."
I’m not trying to say that it’s harder to be a woman in this world than it is to be a man. Life is hard. It doesn't matter who you are. However, I think the way that beauty is equated with love in our society is abominable. There are certainly disadvantages to being a woman. Once we realize the myths that society tells us about who we are, we can stand up and say, “No, this is not who I am, not who I will be.”
What authority do I have to talk about this? As a woman who has had braces twice, Accutane, and has tirelessly curled stick-straight hair while curly was popular, it’s safe to say that I am partially a product of my culture, and I know how it feels to try to measure up. But it’s impossible to live up to the beauty expectations we are bombarded with from Victoria’s Secret ads and e covers of magazines.
What if we told little girls, “As long as you live, you will be loved,” or if we told little boys, “As long you live, you will be loved.”? What assurance do we have of this? Could we conscientiously tell them this? Is this even true?
Romans 8:37-39 tells us, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We are loved more than we can imagine--not because we are beautiful, or ever will be by the standards of this world--but because God, who created this world, loves us and died for us so that we would never be separated from Him again.
