Are Catholic women required to be beautiful?

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You should listen to her interview. She posted a link in her instagram bio. It might help you see her in a different light. 😉
 
Yep,bible places ore emphasis on women “having” to beautiful then men.
 
I think it does goes further than just living a modern lifestyle.
I’m not suggesting it’s necessarily a wrong thing,but I do think she places focus on being beautiful and feminine as being “intertwined” with her Catholic “identity” and intent is to use that as part of her “evangelising tool”.

I’m not suggesting she places as much value on beauty as in the worldly sense,but I do think she sees her beauty and femininity as being somehow tied into her Catholicism.

That’s why my title is what it is.
I’m aware that women shouldn’t place excessive value on beauty adornment-eg:in the Kardashian way-but at the other hand that seems to be this subtle (or not so subtle) suggestion by some that “feminine beauty” is part of being a Catholic woman and inherent to it.
 
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Didn’t someone already point how the Bible says that beauty is vanity? People being beautiful in the Bible doesn’t truly impart any importance to it, and is more of a descriptor. Mary is different in the fact that she was born without sin(and preserved that state) and also had a high degree of humility that would not allow such things to be stumbling block. Most of the beautiful women are in the Old Testament and beauty is not really mention in any of the epistles or Gospels.
 
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True.I definitely agree that women can be successful in the world without external beauty,but with so much mention of beauty the bible connected to bible women,and “Catholic instagrams” like this girls,it makes me in two minds.
 
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Rozellelily said:
The intelligence and courage may have been the better traits,but in reality she wouldn’t have even been one of the kings “options” if she wasn’t beautiful.
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Of course she wouldn’t, this was the king of Persia in the 5th century BC after all. His wife was mainly meant to be a status symbol, an ornament to be displayed along with his wealth, not a true wife. How he chose his wife should not be held as a standard for the best qualities in a woman.
Rozellelily said:
The bible talks about women and physical beauty more than it talks about men and “beauty” (with a few exceptions).
So what I take from that story is that the ideal (greatest) Christian woman should not only be beautiful,but also intelligent and courageous
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Just like the ideal woman is beautiful, the ideal man is physically strong. If you compare these two you will find that the bar is about the same for men and women. Now we can’t all be as beautiful as Esther or as strong as Samson, and that is perfectly okay.

God has created us and given us different qualities, and each of those gifts serve a specific purpose. Esther was so beautiful because God intended her to marry the Persian king, and thus save the exiled Jews with her influence. She was intelligent because God intended her to outwit the guy that wanted to kill Mordecai and the Jews.

Intelligence and beauty are both worldly qualities, however, and many have rightly pointed out to you in this thread that they are not on par with spiritual qualities like courage and humility. Therefore working to strengthen your spiritual qualities always takes precedence over the worldly ones.

But the worldly ones must not be neglected either! Jesus told us in the parable of the Good Servant that God gives out gifts (or talents) with the intention that we work to increase them. If we look at the story of Esther we see that she did not merely rely on her natural looks, but cultivated it like any other woman. And with her being a holy woman, we can be quite sure that it is not vanity that drove her.

And in the end it is what drives you that matters. Why would someone care about their appearance? There are many good reasons to try to look as good as possible, but there are just as many bad ones. This requires some introspection, and will be an exercise in humility.
 
Rozellelily said:
True.I definitely agree that women can be successful in the world without external beauty,but with so much mention of beauty the bible connected to bible women,and “Catholic instagrams” like this girls,it makes me in two minds.
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How so? You really are very strongly implying that an ugly woman, or one who doesn’t actively cultivate physical beauty, is somehow less of a Christian or Catholic. And THAT is the proposition I and everyone else on the thread have serious trouble with.

From one end to the other of the Bible there is not a hint that having or.cultivating beauty is necessary to a godly life in any way.shape.or form.

There are many godly women of the Old Testament who.have not a word mentioned about their looks. For all we know they were ugly as sin and/or completely unconcerned with outward appearances.

And there is not a single mention of the physical beauty of any female follower or Christ in the whole of the NT. Not a solitary word. I should think such would be mentioned at least in passing if it were of any significance.

There is not a single word in scripture stating that cultivating one’s beauty is a noble or worthwhile pursuit for a godly woman. On the contrary, there are many warnings, in both OT and NT, against being concerned with appearances. In fact God, in choosing David from among the sons of Jesse, specifically chose the youngest and least physically impressive. And explicitly said that He does not judge by outward appearance.
 
Thanks.
I listened to approximately 30 minutes of the interview and while I think she is well intended,I can’t help still feeling like there is something pretentious about it all.
Where she mentions a woman getting her face tattooed as the Virgin Mary,and her face being on Rosarys-to her credit she does mention she felt momentary discomfort and that she would never see herself as “measuring” to Mother Mary-if it was me I would feel more than some momentarily discomfort.
I would find it extremely concerning that I was ok with my face being used to promulgate an idea linking external physical beauty with the “ideal Catholic woman”…even to the point of some random woman getting a tattoo.
Is it Catholic Christian values that the person is interested in and Mother Mary’s “soul”, or is it the “romance” of femininity?

Maybe she is right though,if people want to use the image of her face as Mother Mary on Rosaries,then maybe the “ideal” Catholic women is feminine-external beauty one.
Otherwise,how do we make sense of the face that the Mother Mary is always depicted as physically beautiful (whether this was realistic or not).

Maybe beauty is a “evangelical tool”.There are more comments on her Instagram on her beauty than on Christianity in general.
 
It could also be a matter of respect. It is always considered to be highly rude to portray someone, especially a lady, as uglier than they really are.

Given this and that Mary is Queen of Heaven and Earth, who would want to purposefully paint her as ugly?
 
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I definitely don’t want to think this way,that’s awful, but at the same time sometimes I feel that is the message given by some.
Even on this thread some people have made answers like:
Theban said:
Just like the ideal woman is beautiful,
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If it is really not the case,then wouldn’t/shouldn’t images of Mother Mary not be depicted as physically beautiful?
The girl in my link has said people have gone so far as to have her face as the Virgin Mary tattooed on them or depictions of her face used used as the Virgin Mary on Rosaries so it must form some connection to some people’s minds.

Thankfully I have never heard a priest in real life say anything of these kinds,but there are still these subtle messages out there from some people.
 
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If you stopped at 30 minutes you missed her extended discussion about chastity.
Rozellelily said:
Otherwise,how do we make sense of the face that the Mother Mary is always depicted as physically beautiful (whether this was realistic or not).
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Certainly saints who describe seeing BVM describe her as the most beautiful entity they have ever seen. This is a description that far surpasses mere physical beauty. It makes sense that you would look for the most beautiful representation of Mary you can find even if it turns out to be a 26 year old latina photographer.
 
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Rozellelily said:
Please ignore any social pressures to look “Eurocentric” as in my opinion,all nationalities have their own form of beauty and I don’t really get why some people in society try to push onto us for 1 ideal/version of attractiveness.
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I agree that all races have some beauty. I honestly can’t think of an ugly race no matter how superficial my definitions of beauty can be. But I do think there are physically beautiful and ugly people in each race, obviously.

The whole euro centric ideal of beauty is incredibly toxic and it permeates other cultures (eg double eye lid surgery, skin bleaching). My grandmother still spends her money on whitening products. What a waste.
Rozellelily said:
Gods direct involvement,but then on the other hand some Catholics say that nothing is random and all is Gods plan/will 🤷‍♀️.
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I honestly don’t think God plan how we look. If God didn’t will for someone to have Down Syndrome or a disability (since most would say that this would be an unfortunate incident due to biology), why would he pick out the type of nose we would have? Wouldn’t that be biology as well. Did he pick out the color of hair for a kid with downs syndrome then? It doesn’t seem consistent to me. My not so charitable guess is that people who push for the whole ‘God picked every aspect of your face and he loves it’ idea knows that it feels comforting for a lot of people who are already uncomfortable with their looks. It’s easier to get over a wonky nose if you believe God picked it out just for you and you won’t want to hurt him. But meh it doesn’t work on me. Growing up I actually hated God for ‘choosing’ to give me certain things, so that flopped, lol!
 
I always interpret it as inner beauty. Also I could be wrong, but she was said to appear in different forms (eg Mexican in Mexico).

I actually like images of Mary that shows her as a plain/average woman. It seems more humanizing, for a lack of better word. I think most women tend to struggle connecting with Mary, especially the women who have been surrounded by superficial men and women. Mary easily comes across as simply another woman to compare themselves to. In an unproductive way.
 
Honestly, my favorite representation of Mary is Our Lady of Czestochowa.
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

I might not be the best person to ask. I’m just saying, there is a certain logic to looking for the most beautiful image you can find.
 
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I like that the representation focuses on her emotion instead of her external.
 
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