From: ibshambat@gmail.com   
      
   I once read a feminist say that women shouldn’t have to be pretty for   
   anyone. They are both right and wrong. They are right when they confront   
   abuses against unattractive women. They are wrong when they want to force   
   other women to be unattractive.   
      
   Should women be under social coercion to be attractive? For that matter,   
   should men? If you don’t like someone’s conditions, vote with your feet.   
   Find someone who will find you attractive. I have been both attractive and   
   unattractive at different    
   times in my life, and I have had both positive and negative comments on my   
   appearance. I am sure that most other people are in the same boat.   
      
   The women who don’t want to be attractive should be free to be unattractive.   
   What they should not do is attack women who are attractive. Sometimes being   
   attractive can be a result of submission to patriarchy; however it can also be   
   a woman’s self-   
   expression. You can be attractive for the sake of others, and you can also be   
   attractive for the sake of yourself.   
      
   Probably the worst arguments I’ve seen made were to claim that there is   
   incompatibility between physical beauty and things such as intelligence,   
   spirituality and strength. Now maybe spirituality does not discriminate in   
   favor of beauty; but it most    
   certainly does not discriminate against it, and there is nothing to keep a   
   woman from being both beautiful and spiritual. As for strength and   
   intelligence, these people need to know more Russian women. They are beautiful   
   as well as strong and smart.   
      
   Should women be pretty? I believe that women should have a meaningful choice   
   as to what life they lead. A woman who doesn’t want to be attractive should   
   be free to be unattractive; a woman who does want to be attractive should have   
   that freedom as well.   
    Some women once told me that you feel good when you look good. Which means   
   that looking good is one of the joys of living for many women, and keeping   
   women from doing that is disempowering to the women.   
      
   If you are endowed with a positive quality that your gender has in greater   
   possession than does the other gender, then attacking this quality is going to   
   be disempowering to yourself and your gender. When feminists attack beauty   
   they undermine a place of    
   women’s superiority to men.  This is like saying that men shouldn’t be   
   strong. It does a disservice to women.   
      
   I have a very beautiful – as well as smart and strong - daughter, and I want   
   her to avoid the experience of being attacked by feminists. Other than that I   
   want her – and other women – to have a safe life inside the home and a   
   fulfilling life    
   outside the home. I put her under no pressure to look one way or another. She   
   motivates herself. Whether to look good or not to look good should be a   
   woman’s prerogative. And both men and feminists need to respect that choice.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)