Death of Pretty

Okay- have you all read this article on the death of pretty- as in, we have let pretty die as hotness took it's place? An excerpt-

The merits of hotness over pretty is easy enough to understand, they made an entire musical about it. Who can forget how pretty Olivia Newton John was at the beginning of Grease. Beautiful and innocent. But her desire to be desired leads her to throw away all that is valuable in herself in the vain hopes of getting the attention of a boy. In the process, she destroys her innocence and thus destroys the pretty. What we are left with is hotness.

Hotness is a consumable. A consumable that consumes as it is consumed but brings no warmth.

Most girls don’t want to be pretty anymore even if they understand what it is. It is ironic that 40 years of women’s liberation has succeeded only in turning women into a commodity. Something to be used up and thrown out.

Oh it's so sad. He makes the point that pretty is an indivisable combination of beauty plus virtue. I remember in college starting to realize that if I was a little "flirtier" or even a bit cruder that boys seemed to like that and once said to a guy "girls can get guys to do anything they want- they are so easily manipulated". And he said to me, "we are manipulated by who we want to be manipulated by." It was an aha moment for me and changed my thinking on everything.

He was letting me in on the big secret- girls who are acting crude or dressing inappropriately are doing what HE wanted in the first place. The girls think they are powerful and in reality they are the puppet. The girls working so hard to be "just like a guy and not some fru fru girl" and just taking out all the initiative for the guy to pursue her. You don't pursue something easy- you work for the hard-earned prize- the one that no one can get.

Virtuous women make men braver, better. I've noticed lately that even the Christian girls often times are not dressing in a dignified, pretty way. When there is so much flesh around, you may get overlooked in a cardigan. But why join this race to the bottom? It does none of us any good. I'm with this author- bring back the pretty!

And I end with my favorite quote from my dating days, "That which is beautiful is not always good, but that which is good is always beautiful."

All that said, I'm certainly not addressing men's issues in this regard and there are many. And I'm not saying I have it together- I actually found this article challenging and a reminder that virtue relfects in one's countenance and the quest for pretty begins there.