Are Catholic women required to be beautiful?

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You make a lot of interesting points but I still can’t help feeling there is still somehow things that come across as a bit of a “showy” element and a romanisation of super feminine beauty.Its not so much a “rigid dichotomy” about makeup vs 1950’s styling though.

Personally I would rather there be no external physical connection to Catholic femininity regardless whether the imagery in the link or the 1950’s housewife style imagery.

I much prefer the example of Mother Theresa which focuses on our inner beauty.

The marketing etc is fine in itself from a “world” perspective,but I guess the ultimate question for me is is this version of “feminine beauty” a cultural notion,or is it a Catholic based notion/ideal?

If it is Catholic based ideal for women,then isn’t it something that we should all aspire to?

There’s nothing wrong in itself of being attractive (or not) or selling mantillas or other headscarf.
I just don’t think it’s purely coincidental the way it as a whole (for lack of better words) has been put together.

Maybe your right to a degree that’s it’s pretty much the same as “worldly advertising” in the sense that they often choose pretty models so that it will push sales.
At the same time though,I can’t help feeling something a bit tasteful if Catholic/ism goes down this same route too because women already receive enough of these messages in the world.

I’m aware of how Instagram type marketing campaigns work and the purpose of using certain models with a certain look is because often it is the “beauty ideal” that is really being sold and, believe it or not,not so much the product.
Using certain select Instagram “models” wearing your product will often sell your product more effectively than using others because what women/girls really are often buying is the dream moreso that the jewellery or swimwear etc that you are selling.

How this connects with Catholicism is will females be buying the Mantillas because they believe it’s a symbol of submission to God or will they buy it subconsciously for the romantic dream that they will look very femininely beautiful in it?
Does it have the potential of reducing “Catholic wear” to another unattainable beauty goal?

I admit that I don’t know the true purpose for why some women cover their heads in Church,so maybe some people will respond that it doesn’t even matter why someone does it?
 
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Rozellelily said:
For example there is a website called Truecatholicfemininity which is full of the similar images of very feminine beautiful women and drawing a connection between Catholic femininity and this “external”.
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I just had a look at that website. I must not be the target audience on that one. It wasn’t objectionable, but it wasn’t terribly helpful or enriching to me.
 
I think we should stop discussing about that girl on Instagram. It’s just…gossiping honestly.

As for the mini discussion about whether women should force themselves to be feminine. Nope. We are to be ourselves. Femininity changes over time, and frankly there’s nothing more annoying than a woman forcing herself to be feminine/masculine when she naturally isn’t.
 
Followup question outside of the age angle and business angle:

Would we be asking any of this if she was a young mother. LOTS of my friends have familiy pictures in church posted on social media with some regularity. It seems acceptable to go the lifestyle blog or vlog route as a catholic mom. This woman isn’t married and has no kids. Her instagram is the single person version of what the rest of us with husbands and kids are posting, only it is her parents, siblings or sometimes just her in church.
 
I think the whole feminine ideal has been jettisoned by our culture although in theory they claim to uphold it. I once had a discussion with a young woman about women as portrayed on film, & the argument was made that we needed stronger female figures; I disagreed. We have so many portrayals of women like the Black Widow who could clean the streets with the men whose posteriors she’s kicked - warrior types who shame men - but honestly, this image of women is so overused anymore that it’s lost meaning to me.

Don’t we have any normal women out there who change the world - not with their looks - but with their hearts?
 
People have photos taken in Church “everyday” at Baptism,First communion etc.
Personally I’ve never seen this type of posing when receiving the Eucharist.
I’m not in America,maybe it’s more common and accepted in American society?
 
No. I agree that part is not common and feels off in a way I cannot verbalize. Maybe she was testing a camera angle before a wedding? A photo of the couple recieving might not be too out of the ordinary.

I do think she very much believes in the real presence and loves Our Lord.

I felt weird about a picture I saw where everyone was so surprised that Bono just showed up at their parish, but the photo was of him receiving the Eucharist. I was like who is taking pictures during that!? Look! It’s Bono, bust out your smartphone…😫
 
kainosktisis said:
I once had a discussion with a young woman about women as portrayed on film, & the argument was made that we needed stronger female figures; I disagreed.
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Strong female characters can range from a secret spy/superhero to a young teen mom defending her child, to be honest. Strong doesn’t have to mean a skinny beautiful woman with abnormal upper body strength,so I would technically agree with that. But if a movie has fantasy elements in it, why avoid putting such a woman there? I have a problem with such women if they’re one-dimensional/the only type of women present in a film though. Wonder woman was a great female character though. I didn’t like black widow at all.

But one interesting thing I noticed is that we do technically see plenty of diverse women, strong and weak, sex appeal to none, etc. We just ignore them and focus on the newer, more interesting roles like Black Widow, and act as if that’s all we see. We don’t act tired of the same old roles guys tend to play (with that logic).
 
To me, femininity is being the woman God crested you to be. To be kind, prayerful, Fearing and Trusting of the Lord, chaste in your stage in life, etc. Basically, striving to be virtuous and seeking to follow God’s Will. Also, obeying the Catholic Church and Christ.
In a sense, feminine clothing, cosmetics, etc. is a social construct. Look back in history and men wore things that now would be considered like women’s clothing.
I think women who only focus on wearing the right clothes whether it be to stand out and rebel or try and fit in are not focusing on what their soul is doing and if their mind is on God or not. That is really what matters.
Society will try and get us to follow whatever it seems to be right so of course, women who look conventionally beautiful will have fans, followers, etc. It’s been that way for years.
But, God created each person just as He wanted them to be and that’s all that matters. He will bless those who turn their lives to Him.

I don’t completely agree with those who say to get rid of social media because I personally do enjoy it. However, maybe take a break for a while? I’ve done that before. A few weeks to a month is a good place to start. Take time to spend on prayer, hobbies, and having wholesome fun with people in real life!
 
The pictures with veils are one thing, it’s the beauty shots, close ups of her pouting face that strike me as the vanity pictures. What purpose do those photos have except to flaunt her beauty?
 
Lea101 said:
Strong female characters can range from a secret spy/superhero to a young teen mom defending her child, to be honest. Strong doesn’t have to mean a skinny beautiful woman with abnormal upper body strength,so I would technically agree with that.
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Yes, I agree, but it seems like more of the women characterized as strong are these warrior types who want to be men rather than women.

I hated the new Wonder Woman movie. I grew up with Wonder Woman Comics as a kid back in the 70s (We were partial to DC Comics in my household). I remember when an anniversary edition had come out highlighting her from the 1940s. The new one doesn’t resemble the original to me in the least. I think Justice League was better, but it kind of destroyed my childhood super heroine for me.

All I remember was getting to the end of the new Wonder Woman Movie as we watched it at home (A family member had gifted me the DVD), & yelling, “BOO! BOO!” I was so disappointed. Even worse was when Alamo Drafthouse was promoting PP with the women’s day for watching that film.
 
I just strive to practice the virtues and to the best of my ability try to avoid sin.

Since femininity is built into me, all I need to do is pursue holiness and virtue.

What I will not do is contort myself into the stereotype of femininity held out by popular culture.
 
Wonder Woman is my favorite superhero.

I enjoyed the latest Wonder Woman movie however I was disappointed by the lack of an invisible jet.

I’m obsessed by her invisible plane.
 
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That’s so funny I was just going to comment that mainstream modern ‘strong’ women tend to be men.

It’s like the very feminists who are trying to free women are also sending out the message that only masculinity is strong.

It’s so frustrating.
 
Yes

One egregious example is Ray from Star Wars.

She is too good to be true overshadowing every character out there.
 
Are Catholic women required to be beautiful? Yes, as much as Catholic men are required to be handsome.
 
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