The Death of Pretty

Pat Archbold of the National Catholic Register is mourning a tragic death, the death of pretty.  He defines pretty as “a mutually enriching balanced combination of beauty and projected innocence.”  He laments that a time when women wanted to project an innocence has now passed us by, a death that has had a profound impact on men:

“By nature, generally when men see this combination in women it brings out their better qualities, their best in fact.  That special combination of beauty and innocence, the pretty inspires men to protect and defend it.

Young women today do not seem to aspire to pretty, they prefer to be regarded as hot. Hotness is something altogether different.  When women want to be hot instead of pretty, they must view themselves in a certain way and consequently men view them differently as well.

As I said, pretty inspires men’s nobler instincts to protect and defend.  Pretty is cherished. Hotness, on the other hand, is a commodity.  Its value is temporary and must be used.  It is a consumable.”

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/the-death-of-pretty#ixzz1hnak555Q

Well said.  Pretty inspires nobility from men, a desire to protect and defend.  Hotness, today’s brand of beauty, inspires commercialism and says  women are to be consumed, not protected.

I would only add to the argument–to stay with the hotness as a commodity analogy–that like any good vender, women are selling what men are buying.  Men aren’t merely innocent bystanders who have been forced into consumerism, but are instead driving the entire market.  Pretty is dying, frankly, because the market just isn’t there for it. Like one former seminary professor of mine once argued, the Hooter’s billboard on the side of the road is not an indicator that patriarchy has gone missing, but that patriarchy has gone awry.  Men have not merely been shuttled along against their wills into passions and desires that they wanted no part of, but have themselves been buying hotness in bulk, forcing the vender to increase the hotness supply and discontinue the pretty line, or risk having no market at all.

So there is a very real sense in which pretty is passing us by, and its death is being ushered in by men.   Pretty is being replaced with a more depraved product line, but no amount of nostalgia for our grandparents generation will ever be enough to fill the void. We’ll need new hearts for that, hearts of flesh, not stone.  We’ll need to see that the Gospel redefines beauty, namely, because it purposes to recreate the beauty-beholder; eyes born to consume a product for the purpose of fulfilling their own passions and lusts must be transformed into eyes that love everyone that bares the image of God.  Pretty is in decline; there is no question.  But its nothing a little mud and spit won’t cure (John 9:6).

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