The 'Mystery' of Fеmаlе Bеаυty

There have been many modern attempts to explain female beauty, both as a result of our environment and social programming (Nаоmі Wоlf, Thе Bеаυty Myth) and as the result of our evolution and genetic programming( Dеsmоnd Mоrrіs, Thе Nаkеd Ape).

And then of course there is my own theory of female beauty, which says that beauty is programmed into us not by our genes or our tv's, but by our selves - specifically: by our value choices - that what we value we find beautiful.

Theories like these have always been met with assertions that beauty is as eternally unknowable as God and that its very mystery - the fact that it's unexplainable - is precisely what makes it so moving in the first place. For example Emerson wrote of beauty in his famous essay on Love:

In reply I say: Human minds are most decidedly NOT attracted to the incomprehensible. There is nothing in it for them to be attracted to. Nothing is less interesting to us than something we know is unknowable. Hjok jksa jakjha oor. When I tell you that the previous sentence is nothing but gobbledy-gook, that I simply typed letters at random, will you spend hours trying to 'figure' it out?

Of course not. What makes beauty - or anything else - so fascinating, is not that it is unknowable, but that it is knowable. The mystery of space becons, not because we can't reach it, but because we can.

The same is true of beauty. Something about it tells us that it is knowable, and invites us to try, even at the risk of 'destroying' it. So it was that after years of totally enjoyable scrutiny I discovered the true nature of female beauty for myself. I discovered that it is the representation of values - of ideals made real. And you know what? The beauty of female beauty did not go away. Instead, my love and respect for it grew even more!

I saw that beauty feels so good because it is so good. It is not the representation of some other perfect yet unattainable plane of existence as Plato and his echoes like Emerson claimed, not of impossible otherworldly ideals, but of real, albeit conceptual, values; values to be strived for and attained here on earth; things like character, perfection, and happiness. I saw that the more values you hold, the more beauty you can percieve and enjoy. And I learned that nature's purpose in inventing female beauty was to inspire the attainment of these values, to motivate us to be good.

When you discover this for yourself, when beauty lies as naked and as bare to you as your first love once did, when you see what natural and wholesome loveliness lies beneath her meaningless modern clothing, she does not shrivel up and die, just as your beloved did not. Instead she takes on a new, nakedly beautiful glow, and you can't help wondering why anyone would want to cover her up in the first place.

Unfortunately, there will always be those who resent having to strive for anything, especially values of character, people who will refuse to believe that character is something that is to be developed rather than bestowed by birthright or by virtue of one's sex. Those who too strenuously insist that beauty is by its very nature mysterious and who, with overly maudlin protests, complain that explaining beauty will totally destroy it, are those who have something to hide.

They are people who want to keep us ignorant of the moral nature of beauty so they can continue to evade the requirement presented by beauty but placed by nature on all men and women to acquire both character and the knowledge of what character is. In extreme cases these people will visciously murder beautiful women in order to avoid the challenge they pose to have character. (Click here to see what I mean.)

To the majority of people, however, beauty remains a pleasant mystery. But I can tell you from experience that just like the female body itself, the phenomenon of female beauty, when uncovered, reveals to you the same breath stopping majesty of nature's design.