What is Beauty?

I attended a Theology of the Body talk a month or so ago given by a beautiful Nashville Dominican sister. She shared with us a story she had heard of a man who had accidentally stepped foot into a satan worshiper convention. He said that satan and his followers had three goals: to destroy marriages, to destroy innocent life, and to destroy the distinctions between male and female. She also shared with us a picture of the face of a "beautiful" model and asked whether or not the model was male or female. I immediately sprang back to my high school days when I was obsessed with "America's Next Top Model" and tried to assess what appeared before me. The face was androgynous and turned out to be male. How frightening to realize that satan's ploys are alive in society today. The face of beauty in society today is becoming less the apex of creation who once held that role. There is a total reconfiguring and misunderstanding of beauty in society today and a total loss of true, authentic beauty.
In many of my recent posts I express the loss of understanding of beauty today. We see it in the way women desire to be anorexic, failing to embrace and see the beauty they have been created in; rather, they find beauty in a sickly appearance which lacks life.
Satan is the father of death - why on Earth are we listening to his idea of beauty?
This is a reason I truly believe Mary is the face of beauty. Do we have an idea what Mary looked like? Nope, not at all. We know she was a Israeli girl and thats about it. We don't even know her structure or size because as Catholic dogma tells us, she was assumed body and soul into Heaven. Sure we have numerous artistic depictions of her; as a matter of fact Mary has been one of the most influential figures for some of the greatest artists throughout history. But Mary is the Theotokos. She bore the son of God in her very womb. She, a human girl, brought to us GOD.
Satan is the father of death, right? but God, God is the light. In God all truth is revealed; all truth is brought to light. Christ is the light of the world who humbled himself to be born of a human, not just a human, but a woman who would say "yes" and redeem the one who disobeyed (I'm contrasting Mary and Eve here).
Christ illuminates the beauty of his mother and the dignity of all woman by coming to us through the womb of a woman. Alice von Hildebrand puts this beautifully. After explaining the unique way in which woman was created to be a mystery even biologically, for her sexual organs are hidden, she explains that woman has a unique mission in being veiled and in a special and sacred way belongs to God. Woman requires man to seek permission from her Father, God, in holy Matrimony before entering her mysterious garden, as von Hildebrand puts it. She then says, "The mysterious character of this garden is an emblem and a repetition, a figura, of the greatest event that has taken place in history: The Incarnation - God becoming man, hidden for nine months in the womb of the most perfect of all creatures -  the Virgin Mary" (83 von Hildebrand The Privilege of Being a Woman).
Through the mysterious womb of a Woman, the greatest mystery came to light and brought man to transcendence.
Satan's wrong. the androgynous face is not the apex of beauty, but woman is. The male and female play different roles, and although I do not lie one ounce when I tell my boyfriend I find him to be extraordinarily handsome as well as an incredible man of God, beautiful is never an adjective I use to describe man. A little boy wants his father to look upon him and say I am proud of you son. A little girl wants her father to look upon her with the eyes of adornment and say you are beautiful. Am I mistaken? Men certainly have power - we have yet to have a female president, there are numerous kings and heroes of war throughout history; there is no doubt that men are powerful. Ah but so too are women. The strongest woman in the world is never going to naturally be stronger than the strongest man in the world; I'm speaking physically. What I am saying is although society portrays the androgynous face of beauty - there are differences in male and female. So where does woman's power play into all this? Thats just it: her beauty is powerful. A woman's body can lead man to lust after her -  to view her as food for his passions rather than the apex of creation, a human made in the image and likeness of God and totally adored and loved by Him. However, a woman's body, veiled like she was created to be, is still attractive but when the light of her overwhelming beauty is shaded by self respect and virtue, her beauty can lead men to virtue.
If a woman's body must be veiled yet her beauty is still powerful in the ambition towards the Good - what then is beauty?
Beauty is not without the physical. We have to see that when we acknowledge that woman was created with a power to lead men to sin or to virtue and we have to see that when we realize the destruction of feminine beauty is one of satan's major goals.
A woman is beautiful. Women love to be told they're beautiful and love to be adored. But beauty has to be beyond the physical. A woman is seen as most beautiful when she stands confident in the dignity she was created in.
A persons dignity is rooted in God's love for them - that he willed for them to be. A man's dignity is most fruitfully expressed when he loves truly and authentically because he was created in love and made to love. A woman's dignity is most fruitfully expressed when she is loves truly and authentically because the same is true for her as well. These roles are just blessed with different gifts. I could expound upon the masculine and feminine psyche but I am just going to assume that you understand male and females are created differently. (we see this most simply because the sexes often misunderstand one another due to their differences. Although there can be a confusion of one another there is a beautiful compliment between the way a man and woman love.)
Woman is beautiful - physically. She has a power to seduce men into sin with her body and she has a power to bring man to great love. When she veils that which belongs to her Father she can bring man to virtue. By bringing man to herself by authentically loving him she leads him to truly love her and ultimately be virtuous and love God.
I would have to say that authentic feminine beauty encompasses a genuinely, natural face of a woman that shines due to the light of her virtue and awareness that she is infinitely loved by her creator.
But then you ask, how is every woman beautiful as you say if there are women like Mary Magdalene for example who did not always live virtuous lives? or what about when you did not understand your dignity as an infinitely loved daughter of the King? Because first of all God created each individual out of love and saw that he or she was good. He loves them infinitely and has infinite mercy on every person no matter what they've done and how far they've chosen to separate themselves from Him. This truth is beyond our understand and beyond our ability to judge.  Each woman was created beautifully and it is revealed most perfectly (and understood more clearly) when one says "yes" to God as Mary did.