Thursday, November 1, 2007

Beauty: Nature versus Nurture- Part C (because I don’t know how to spell 3 in French)

I have been thinking about this issue more.

When someone says men are made by God to be attracted to women who are beautiful there ends up being more to that line of thinking if we follow the thought logically. It is my understanding that God designs a big part of how any individual woman looks. By this I mean that a large part of her appearance is due to her genes…facial features, body type, hair color and texture, eye color, the shade of her skin etc. (Understanding that some women work with what they were born with better than others).

So if God designs men to be attracted to women who look a certain way (remembering that I am not saying that God has not made men to be visually stimulated, I believe He has done that. But rather that God designed men to be specifically stimulated by and attracted to women who embody the current idea of what beauty is) would that not then mean by extension:

-That God designs some women to be unattractive to men?

-That God designs women to be rejected by men?

-That God puts the desire for marriage and children in a woman’s heart and then puts her together in such a way that the desire is unlikely to be met?

There is more to this idea than a person’s right to be attracted to someone else for their own reasons. When we say it is God’s design or plan then I think we are also saying something about the nature of God. In my limited understanding all of this does not seem to go with what I know of His nature.

That being said, I think it an extraordinarily bad idea to argue or insist that a man (or woman, though the men seem to be getting the worst of this kind of admonishment) should or should not be attracted to anything (outside of what God tells us in scripture). Other than that, I believe an individual can prefer what they wish though I do think it is wise to individually examine our preferences in the light of scripture and to submit to God if He directs us on the subject.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

If only more women on the net were like you in how they address an issue. Your words (the way you articulate), carry a soothing, graceful style that is non-threatening in tone. Your respect, your intelligence and attention to observation concerning both genders is refreshing. I like your blog. Keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

Rather, I suppose you have a degree of empathy. Or, at least, you have rejected many feminist assumptions. You'll make a great companion someday for someone who can trust you to watch his back (and the other areas he is not predisposed to see)

Learner said...

Knightwatch,

Thank you for your kind comment and encouragement. I appreciate it.

Learner said...

SingleChristianMan,

Thank you for your kind words :)