Don't forget to roar!

                                                                        

Women’s beauty has been heralded long before languages were formed and the earliest of texts were scribed. Helen of Troy launched a thousand ships with her legendary beauty. Bruno Mars tells us that a pretty girl should never look so blue. Endless memes offer a variety of “I’m too pretty to ___”; you fill in the blank.

It’s time to start valuing women for more than their beauty, and we girls have the largest stake in this. We have a responsibility to fight for our equality and it will never come if we continue to insist on being adored for the cosmetic.

You are not too pretty to work. You aren’t. Thinking this way or feeling this way is extremely dangerous. It says to the world that beauty is the most valuable thing. That a woman who has achieved some standard of beauty has fulfilled her life’s purpose and should now find a man to belong to. He should work hard and pay all the bills and be grateful to be in your presence. Now you are a kept woman whose value relies deeply upon your man’s physical attraction to you, which is proven by science to wane over time.

You are not too pretty to be single. You aren’t. Dating is difficult and chemistry is elusive. Identities are a heavy burden and no one really has their shit together. If you’ve put all your stock in your looks, then that is all you have to offer and any man will get bored quickly.

It is reckless to suggest that pretty people deserve more than everyone else. Where is the humanity in that? Of course beauty is an asset, it would be absurd to consider otherwise, but so is intelligence, humor, honesty, and the list goes on. Women are seldom praised for any of these attributes unless they have been previously trumped by a superficial compliment. A woman should use all her assets, and the very word “use” suggests an action. So put in work. Offer up more to the pantheon of art and society than a complacent satisfaction in a surface appraisal. We are women. Hear us roar. If you want to look fabulous doing it, great, but don’t forget to roar.