Are Catholic women required to be beautiful?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rozellelily
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This is going to sound blunt, but I think it needs to be said…

You need to get off social media and down on your knees. Thank God for creating you as he saw fit, and ask God to send his Holy Spirit to help you see the beautiful person you are. Ask God to remove envy and jealous, and help you live life confidently and boldly as a woman of God wonderfully made in His image.
 
I agree,you are right I will pray.
At the same time though,I think beauty will always have an influence in women’s lives,positively or negatively,because we live in a society that places great value on it.
 
Rozellelily said:
I think beauty will always have an influence in women’s lives,positively or negatively,because we live in a society that places great value on it
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Yes, we live in a world that values beauty, but we do not have to let that define how we see ourselves. You are in the driver’s seat of your life and your thoughts about yourself. Pray for self-confidence and perspective.
 
I guess the main intent of this thread would be how interconnected are external beauty and femininity -if at all?

What exactly is the definition of Catholic feminity?
Some Catholics say forget femininity all together,it is just a cultural and social construct,and not a religious one.
Other Catholics (the ones who usually write those books on modesty,femininity etc) say that “Catholic femininity” is a thing,so is there a universally agreed upon definition?

Its interesting to hear how much these “femininity” topics are talked about in US Christian websites because I live in Australia where femininity is rarely talked about in Churches,let alone the media, as (in my view) the media is quite feminist and “left”.
These types of topics I come across more on US based websites/blogs/US based writers.
 
po18guy said:
You will do good to disengage from social media - actually from all media. I have eliminated TV, radio (except Catholic), newspapers, and all other means of the media gaining access to my mind.

I am much, much happier now.
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Excellent advice! I have done the same, with the exception that I am still on Facebook. Eliminating television fourteen years ago is the best thing I ever did. My opinions are once again my own, thought-through and deeply considered, rather than being swallowed wholesale simply because some idiot on television said them.
 
No.

Let’s face the reality that only a minority of the world’s population are considered above average, face wise. Most people don’t have an above average facial bone structure. You can use makeup, but it only does so much. If the bone structure is below average, maybe plastic surgery would work, although I would not recommend it unless the condition interferes with one’s health.
 
Heh. That Catholic girl might need to review the Catholic concepts of pride and vanity. (Which, to be fair, social media indulges as its lifeblood.)
 
From my understanding, most accounts of our Blessed Mother’s apparitions describe her as very beautiful. The Song of Solomon certainly celebrates physical beauty. Genesis 6 alludes to the beauty of women. So physical beauty is important in that it attracts men and women together for the purpose of procreation. But by no means is it implied or thought that less physically attractive people are deficient or have less dignity.
 
Just try to be as feminine and beautiful as you possibly can, inside and out.

It’s hard to get every aspect of femininity right: to smell pretty, have long hair, wear makeup, wear properly fitting clothes that emphasize your waist and bosom, wear high heals, wear brighter colours or florals from time to time, wear skirts occasionally, speak mellifluously, walk gracefully, listen to others in a sweet way and not argue too vociferously. Any given woman might get two of these things right in any given year.

But the important thing is not to look masculine. That means not swearing or making crude jokes, not wearing dark lumberjack outfits, not making too many heavy sounds with your feet, not joining a construction crew, not joining a hockey team, not smoking, not drinking beer, not spitting, not using the men’s washroom, not sitting with your legs apart, not walking around topless in the summer, not wearing heavy winter boots. Of course, you may manage to get one of these things wrong in a given year, but that should be about it.

Hope this helps.
 
bobperk said:
From my understanding, most accounts of our Blessed Mother’s apparitions describe her as very beautiful.
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Mary probably wasn’t a 10/10 in real life though, given the living conditions in 1st-century Palestine. Neither she nor Jesus are ever described as being particularly good-looking in the Gospels.
 
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Lara said:
But the important thing is not to look masculine. That means not swearing or making crude jokes, not wearing dark lumberjack outfits, not making too many heavy sounds with your feet, not joining a construction crew, not joining a hockey team, not smoking, not drinking beer, not spitting, not using the men’s washroom, not sitting with your legs apart, not walking around topless in the summer, not wearing heavy winter boots. Of course, you may manage to get one of these things wrong in a given year, but that should be about it.
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So swearing, crude jokes, and smoking are okay as long as men do them?

Also, hockey? Heavy winter boots? C’mon Lara.
 
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Remember, you can get only one thing wrong, so for you that could be the heavy winter boots.
 
Lara said:
Remember, you can get only one thing wrong, so for you that could be the heavy winter boots.
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As the Cinemasins narrator would say, “arbitrary rule is arbitrary.”

Heavy winter boots are not “wrong” or “masculine.” Are we to trek around in the snow wearing heels?
 
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It happens to be my masculine vice because I can’t walk far in lady-like boots.
 
Couldn’t find the word parodical.
Boots come in many forms that are less masculine. What do you wear? If your brother would wear them in a heartbeat, yeah, you’re probably in my camp.
 
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Lara said:
Couldn’t find the word parodical.
Boots come in many forms that are less masculine. What do you wear?
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Try Google.

I don’t ask what gender my winter boots identify as. I only care if A) they fit, and B) they’ll keep my toes from falling off.
 
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I do drink beer but I do it in a dress,not in a “blokey pub type of way” and I’m European background so this is normal amongst women.
 
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