"Pretty Is as Pretty Does"

We are girls. Well, perhaps there is a guy out there reading this.  You are not a girl.  (Just to clarify that really quick.)  But…provided you are of the feminine race, you are a girl.  Which is usually synonymous with “I want to be pretty.”  And there is nothing wrong with wanting to be beautiful.  But how we make ourselves beautiful and pretty IS important.

God created us as ourselves.  In our society, however, we try to make ourselves different than who we really are.  We try to reach ourselves up to be something we aren’t – something that Hollywood and our society has changed and distorted.  They have changed us from being pretty girls whom God created, to hot girls whom Hollywood and photoshop created.  Take, for instance, this video.  This was a pretty girl whom God created, but it is someone totally different that you see on the billboard ad!

Photo Courtesy: W. A. Bouguereau

  There was an article written by Pat Archbold called “The Death of Pretty” on the National Catholic Register.  While I do not agree, in any way, shape, or form, with the religious beliefs of this website…this article is completely right on how true prettiness has died.  Here are some excerpts.

“Pretty is dying. People will define pretty differently.  For the purposes of this piece, I define pretty as a mutually enriching balanced combination of beauty and projected innocence. Once upon a time, women wanted to project an innocence.  I am not idealizing another age and I have no illusions about the virtues of our grandparents, concupiscence being what it is.  But some things were different in the back then.  First and foremost, many beautiful women, whatever the state of their souls, still wished to project a public innocence and virtue.  And that combination of beauty and innocence is what I define as pretty. 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. […Women are then viewed as…]A consumable that consumes as it is consumed but brings no warmth. Most girls don’t want to be pretty anymore even if they understand what it is.  It is ironic that 40 years of women’s liberation has succeeded only in turning women into a commodity.  Something to be used up and thrown out. […] Our problem is that society doesn’t value innocence anymore, real or imagined.  Nobody aspires to innocence anymore.  Nobody wants to be thought of as innocent, the good girl.  They want to be hot, not pretty….”

When I grew up, I read a lot of old classic books and one quote that I found in many different books was “Pretty is as pretty does.”  A lot of “pretty” comes from how you act and the way you project yourself.  Are you an object just to be used?  Or are you a created human being whom God uses for His purpose?

Most girls also seem to think they need to disguise or change themselves to make them pretty.  I know countless girls who use so much makeup that you can barely recognize that they are the same person depending if they are wearing it or not.  Used correctly makeup can add a little to you and is not bad.  But too much makeup changes who you are and gives an impression of something you are not.  The same goes for hair dye.  God created you to be uniquely you.  That means you don’t need to dye your hair a different color.  

Photo Courtesy: Getty Images

  If we have good character, combined with the looks that God gave us, you will be pretty.  Remember the words of 1 Peter 3:3-5 which states, “Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel— rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.”  Proverbs 31:30 reaffirms this fact through the words of “Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.”

Pretty is as Pretty does.