Ashley Judd and The Way Society Judges Women
If you haven’t read Ashley Judd’s essay about her appearance and the way women are criticized for their looks, I encourage you to do so. You can click here to read it http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/09/ashley-judd-slaps-media-in-the-face-for-speculation-over-her-puffy-appearance.html
If reading it doesn’t reinforce what most of us already know–that no matter what a woman does or accomplishes she is judged by her looks–then you must be reading the wrong article.
I have always felt sorry for women who live in the public eye. Princess Diana was a private person who once she became a princess, never had another private moment in her life. It was obvious she loved children and loved and helping others, but more often than not it was her clothes, her hair, her figure that captured the media’s attention. Ashley Judd walks in that same world and what a critical world it is!
When will society wise up and take to heart what my Grandma Layne told me all the time, “Pretty is as pretty does. Beauty is only skin deep. You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.”
Or if you want it from a higher source than my grandmother remember the story in 1 Samuel chapter 16, when God chose David to become king? There were 7 brothers for him to pick from but when he picked David, Samuel was surprised that he hadn’t chosen the taller, more handsome brother.
Here is God’s answer….” But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
Why can’t we remember that?
I told my daughter and plan on telling my granddaughters the same things my grandmother told me about beauty. I will also make sure they know about David, and the importance of having a pure heart, but I have no doubt that society will inevitably tell them something different.
In Ashley’s essay she closed by saying, “The insanity has to stop, because as focused on me as it appears to have been, it is about all girls and women. In fact, it’s about boys and men, too, who are equally objectified and ridiculed, according to heteronormative definitions of masculinity that deny the full and dynamic range of their personhood. It affects each and every one of us, in multiple and nefarious ways: our self-image, how we show up in our relationships and at work, our sense of our worth, value, and potential as human beings. Join in—and help change—the Conversation.”
Friends, let’s help change the conversation!
Another one of my Grandma Layne’s sayings fits here and I’ll close with it.
“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”
Amen
