A Beautiful Man Is Hard to Find
Women and men are different.
This should not be controversial. It seems to me that anyonefinding this controversial is shockingly lacking in empathy.
Since the Sixties and feminism, we have been fighting againstthis truth. Feminism insisted that any difference was just a role forced onwomen by society.
Perhaps the rise of the “transgender” movement is at leastin part the inevitable rebellion against this claim. Its insistence on “gender”as a core of one’s identity is a direct contradiction to feminism. To feminism,“gender” is not a trait you are born with, but a set of arbitrarily behaviours forcedon you. Otherwise feminism makes no sense.
Transgenders insist there is a female or a male soul. Otherwiseyou could not be “trans.”
Leave aside the other questions raised by transgenderism: whethergender is independent of sex, and whether one can be “born into the wrong body.”
There are three transcendental values: truth, good, andbeauty. They are the goals of existence. They bring value to life. We are createdin order to seek these three things, and to express these three things.
Of these three, it is obvious that women, not men, are mostresponsible for beauty. Women are more visually attractive than men; women careabout being attractive; men don’t. This is not just to attract men sexually;women definitely also dress and make up for other women, for the sake of abstractbeauty. Both men and women would rather look at a woman than a man on amagazine cover.
If you introduce a woman into a home or office or business,she will instantly go about trying to make it more beautiful, more comfortable.You leave men on their own at a workplace, and it will be functional, no more.
Cultures that devalue beauty, like Protestantism, or Islam,will devalue women. Cultures that value beauty, like France, Italy, or LatinAmerica, will value women more highly.
This is why feminism began in the Protestant countries. Itwas here women were devalued. Although it has since spread to Catholics as well;due to the overwhelming cultural influence of America.
And why does a man marry a woman? The question has come uponline recently: MGTOW. Is it worth all the insults, demands, and worries, therisks of ruinous divorce, “just for a vagina”? What else does a woman bring tothe relationship?
This, after all, is what feminism has left us with.
But properly, a man marries to bring beauty into his life. Tomake his house a home. Not just her physical beauty, but her charm, her attitude—forthis is her proper role, to be supportive, “inner beauty.” And her ability todecorate the living space. And her ability to cook, which is a form of beauty, appealingto the sense of taste. If she is a good wife, she brings grace and comfort to hislife. Along with the joy of children.
This is what a good wife should do. Feminism has devalued itall, and women have come to neglect and distain all of this. Reducing them tono more than second-rate men with vaginas.
And now we must acknowledge that men too have their role incivilization and the human enterprise. As feminism would deny. They are morethan bicycles, more than a means to an end.
Women are the guardians of beauty; men are the guardians of truth.Men are born with an internal compass that points towards the North Star. Womenwill believe anything; men will want proof. This is why Jesus, who obviouslyknew what he was doing, chose only male apostles. We should not second-guessGod. And this is why St. Paul said women should be silent in church. It is not theirrole to lead and teach, any more than it is the role of a man to wear makeup andgive fetching smiles. Either has gone off the rails.
Not incidentally, we have made a grave mistake by giving theteaching profession over almost entirely to women. This is not their role.Notice that, in the New Testament, Jesus’s genealogy is traced back to David throughJoseph—even though Jospeh is not his biological father. This is because therole of the father, of he man, is to guide and educate, to pass on truths. Inthis sense, Joseph and his genealogy are fully relevant.
If we value truth, but not beauty, as in Protestant (and nowsecular) Northern Europe, this will look like a misogynist view. If we valuebeauty as well as truth, it will not. It is both received and revealed wisdom.It is common sense.
And what of the third transcendental value, the good? Indeed,this is the central of the three: “and the greatest of these is love.” We werecreated to choose the good, of our free will.
Men and women seem to have an equal role here; but beinggood means different things for each. Goodness means justice, on the one hand;mercy on the other. In America, to say someone is good, you say “he is honest.”In China, you say “he is kind.” And these are different things.
Good women are kind and merciful. Good men are honest and just.
We need both. We need both men and women in our culture, andin our individual lives. And we have lost this.
'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.
