Tuesday, December 9, 2014

You are more than your parts


             
                                      
Tonight at 10:00 pm, thousands will tune in to their televisions or web stream as scantily dressed women are put on display.

And it's not on the porn channel.

Instead it's a so-called fashion show that celebrates the objectification of women for the gratification of others.

It's a reducing of daughters of God down to their bra size and the length of their legs.

And it's hailed with great acclimation.

What is so wrong about the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, or even their advertisement in general?
It's just lingerie.  The women choose to walk and model the seasons trends.  Everyone is paid.  No one is getting hurt.


That couldn't be a bigger lie.

Despite the smiles and laughter, compliments and beauty that is shown on that screen tonight and in advertisements through the year, Victoria's Secret doesn't reveal enough.


Their models are dressed in barely-there ensembles but they aren't showing the world who they really are.

They are showing a body and not a soul.  A lingerie set and not the heart and mind underneath the skin of the girl.  

I am in no way saying that the woman's body is ugly.  Or that it deserves more clothing because no one should have to see that.  Instead, I'm proposing that the woman's body is so beautiful that it needs veiled.

What do we veil?  In the Catholic Church, there is a veil over the tabernacle.  It's not because Christ is a wretched presence no one wants to see.  When you go to a wedding, brides have the choice of wearing a veil.  Not because this is the most ugly day of her life.  Because we veil things that deserve honor and respect.  Because an aura of mystery intensifies the beauty that lies beneath the surface.

Victoria's Secret Fashion shows do not promote the beauty that is inherently placed in the souls of their models.  A beauty that comes from being a child of God, loved into existence.  Instead, it places value on the skin surface
appearance.

In an interview with ABC, Kylie Bisutti, a former VS Angel, explained the reason she left her position as a model for the company.  

 “I was doing my makeup in the mirror one day and she was watching me,” Bisutti said.  “She looked at me and was like, ‘You know, I think I want to stop eating so I can look like you.’”

“It just broke my heart because she looks up to me and I didn't want to be that type of person that she thought she had to do that to be beautiful,” she said.  “Thousands of girls that think that being beautiful is an outer issue and really it’s a heart issue.”

It's a heart issue.
It's realizing that our bodies are ways in which we reveal Christ to the world around us....and this is not a task accomplished by revealing our physical body.  The revelation of the work of God in our lives is done through our actions and our very person - our whole person: Heart, Body, Mind and Soul. 

And you don't even have to wear a feather headdress and bedazzled bra while doing it.  

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