Beauty Beheld: A Retelling of Hansel and Gretel (The Classical Kingdoms Collection Book 3)

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But it came up in conversation with Katrin—whose footsteps are farther away from 40 than my own—after a stranger gave her the same sort of ostensibly gentlemanly comment. He was almost at the end of his doctor of nursing practice program, and I couldn’t be prouder of him.

Much to my pleasure, my eager nostrils were greeted by savory shredded pork simmering in a tangy sauce with a medley of sliced onions, chili peppers, and . Unleashing men’s sartorial fancy, he argued, would loosen their superego, the restrictive, repressive force in the human psyche—which would ultimately lead to greater freedom. I don’t know how many studies I’ve read that say that the number-one must-wear cosmetic women cite as essential is mascara. A lifelong soccer fan recently told me he feels guilty sometimes watching women’s sports because he catches himself being enthralled by their beauty, not just their skill.Breaking these associations would mean to break the Sex Myth, and for that matter, much of the beauty myth as well. These women are not thinking about how they look, how their faces are posed, how their bodies might be viewed. It begins, "For attractive lips, speak words of kindness," and goes on in that vein ("For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day"), culminating with "The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.

In an effort to speak the truth in love, Beauty Not Beheld will gently push readers to expose our culture’s distortion of the central message of the gospel in the self-love movement and instead embrace the true gospel that will set us free and lead to a thriving sense of self. But their beauty allows the quality Sally refers to as "ooze" to be read by others as charm or graciousness, or as a stream of reciprocal attention. The fact that their looks garner each of them a generous amount of attention becomes almost secondary; it just lets them get away with absorbing the gaze of others in a way that doesn't seem desperate. The idea was that the dark, heavy clothes men were expected to wear were unhygienic (it was difficult to wash a suit before widely available dry cleaning—indeed, that’s part of why suits are traditionally dark, to mask dirt), and ugly to boot (we’ll get to that). Nicely, of course, or at least that’s the line— lady, you can’t tell me you’re seriously threatened by me telling you I like your scarf?

I can’t say I’ll shell out for them again; I think of myself as far too practical to do so for any reason other than having a public photo taken. Each week focuses on a different aspect of our true, biblical identity, whether that be our brokenness, our redemption, or even our physical selves. In time I would learn that pretty and smart played just fine together, finally giving credence to the evidence I saw everywhere around me.

Even when my entire being is focused on a desire, I’m probably not at risk of truly breaking any sort of code of feminine regulation. And cannily executed, an endorsement, particularly a celebrity endorsement, can be effective if the consumer sees a reflection of herself in the spokesperson. Despite how hard I’d tried to give him the best of me, yet another one of my relationships had gone bad. When I watch the athletes of this World Cup, I see an entirely different way that desire becomes focused. I shared my own experience, and she’d noticed it too: “What, do they think they’re our girlfriends now?

We see women legislating, creating, speaking, protesting—images that weren’t available just a couple of generations ago. The woman who takes this approach to self-presentation might be just as much—or just as little—a “freak between the sheets” as her more publicly sexual forerunners.