Beautiful Women and the Moon

[yellow8yellowM]

Lust is completely in contrast with appreciating true beauty. There is nothing wrong with admiring a beautiful human being, especially when it is also true of their inward being.

No one has ever been aroused by a beautiful nude sculpture for example.

Can we assume your are being sarcastic here? If not, I think you should have this conversation with a teenage boy or any number of men. We can get aroused pretty easily looking at a fence post (and I’m not being sarcastic.)

 

[yellow8yellowM]

With the beauty of a woman – concupiscence and even sin can enter into things.

Perfect! This is part of the answer I was not able to think of.

…Some of this is covered simply by rules of good manners: “It’s impolite to stare at people.”

…If you were to attend a play or ballet, the performers have allowed you permission to look at them for longer periods of time…However, if my daughter or some other young lady happens to catch your eye while walking down the street, then anything beyond a few seconds starts to cross an undefined line. A person who is going about her own business did not invite you to stare at her, so don’t do it. It’s kind of creepy.

This was the other half. The permission part. You don’t need permission to look at a sculpture or the moon, or a ballet dancer during a show, but somebody walking through the grocery store isle did not give you permission to look for more than a second or two. We all know this as common sense, but I was trying to get somebody to explain “why” it is common sense.

Another way of looking at it. If the person you are looking or staring at knew you were doing it, would they be okay with it? This goes back to the story of the nude model who quickly covered herself when the wind blew open the curtains exposing her to the people on the street. She was okay being portrayed in a painting and in front of the artist, but not in front of the people on the street.

 

[jimmy]

Lust is completely in contrast with appreciating true beauty. There is nothing wrong with admiring a beautiful human being, especially when it is also true of their inward being.

No one has ever been aroused by a beautiful nude sculpture for example.

And am I to look at a beautiful woman who is standing near me exactly as I would look at a beaufiful nude sculpture? This is my impression of the CAF Catholics. They want to portray a woman as a work of art. She should be on a pedestal in an art museum. If there is any hint of sexual desire in you when you look at her, hell will make you forget about that desire because that is where your headed. If she happens to be your wife you might not go to hell. You’ll only go to purgatory for about 300 million years.

 

[gardenswithkids]

And am I to look at a beautiful woman who is standing near me exactly as I would look at a beaufiful nude sculpture? This is my impression of the CAF Catholics. They want to portray a woman as a work of art. She should be on a pedestal in an art museum. If there is any hint of sexual desire in you when you look at her, hell will make you forget about that desire because that is where your headed. If she happens to be your wife you might not go to hell. You’ll only go to purgatory for about 300 million years.

If anything I wrote gave you that impression, I apologize. Ew, no! Don’t do that!

What makes people think it’s okay to stare at a beautiful woman as if she was a piece of nicely carved stone? What makes anyone think it might be okay to look at her as if she was some lunar body, orbiting the earth? Why can’t you look at a beautiful woman as if she were a* human being*?

It’s one thing to recognize that a woman is pretty. It’s another thing to lust after her. Regarding her as if she is an inanimate object isn’t all that different from lusting. Part of the problem with lust is that it treats a woman as if she were only there for sexual pleasure, but looking at her as if she were only there for viewing pleasure isn’t much better. Pity the beautiful woman who is treated as if she is merely a beautiful *thing! *

Treat her like she is a* person**. Look at her like she is a person. Provide her with the same courtesy and respect that you would give another person. *

There are stories in the Bible about Jesus’ encounter with women, like the Woman at the Well, and the woman who was being stoned for adultery. I can’t find the exact passages and with the exact translations, but the words “And Jesus looked at her” stand out in my mind. I’m certain that one of the things that drew women to follow Jesus was the way he looked at them. He could see their beauty–both inside and out, (along with everything else about them.) If you only see a woman’s external looks, you are missing something! A beautiful woman is a human with a body and a soul. I know that you can’t see into a woman’s soul the way Jesus did, but you can at least recognize that, unlike marble statues, beautiful women* have* souls.

 

[Debora123]

What makes people think it’s okay to stare at a beautiful woman as if she was a piece of nicely carved stone? What makes anyone think it might be okay to look at her as if she was some lunar body, orbiting the earth? Why can’t you look at a beautiful woman as if she were a human being**?

I think this right here is the problem. There is some sort of negative attitude or controversy aimed towards appreciation of the human form on this thread, which I simply do not understand.

Just because you look at a person and think they are beautiful or look at a baby and think it is cute, doesn’t mean you looking at them as though they aren’t human beings, especially when there is no lust involved. I’m not sure why that sentiment is even being thrown around.

What I will say is that yes, it is rude to stare at a stranger, regardless of why you’re staring. But this has nothing to do with the heart of the topic at hand.