What Makes Women Beautiful?

I think women are beautiful! It wasn't until after God created Eve that He claimed His work was done. He had created a lot of beautiful things, but Eve was the last, sort of His crowning achievement. Maybe He was trying to make up for that man He created. No offense to Adam; I'm sure he was a pretty fantastic man. I just think men are ugly. Woman might be thought of as God's magnum opus, created just before His final declaration that His creation was "good."

What Makes Women Beautiful?

So what is it about women that makes them so beautiful? This is a question I have been thinking about lately, but haven't quite been able to figure out yet. I can certainly understand why God would think His work was done after making a woman. I just don't understand intellectually what I find so beautiful about them. So like any good scientist, I've been studying the question. Here's what I've come up with so far.

Being a man, I find beauty in a woman's physical shape and appearance. The one unifying element that seems to make their different aspects beautiful to me is "softness." I'm not sure that's the right word, though, so here's a few more: smooth, gentle, nurturing. Some of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen are of my wife carrying a child in her womb or breastfeeding one of our children. But there's something about the softness of the female form, the curves, the fullness of form, that make a woman's body attractive to me. Long, soft hair, soft facial features, soft, full lips - those all work. With this question in mind, I have been looking at women around me that strike me as beautiful and I keep coming back to the word "soft."

Harsh features aren't beautiful to me and those usually belong to men. It's the harshness, the sharp lines, the hard forms of developed muscle that seem to be made to help a man face the physical challenges of the world and protect his family from danger and want. Those features aren't attractive to me at all. From what my wife tells me, those are some of the things about men that she finds attractive. Kind of cool how it all works out.

So I know that's not a very complete answer, but I'm still working on it. Studying the "what" of beauty is a good start, but I don't really understand intellectually why I think those features are beautiful. But let me take a stab at it from a different angle.

Why Are Women Beautiful?

Women want to be loved and adored. Their beauty might be nature's way of securing for themselves a fulfillment of these natural desires. Likewise, men want to be respected and admired. Taken to unhealthy extremes, women prostitute themselves in order to receive a counterfeit adoration and men become tyrants to obtain a counterfeit respect. Unfortunately, these counterfeits can't satisfy our real cravings. It's only in a healthy, committed relationship where a woman lovingly submits to her husband (a sign of respect) and the husband loves his wife and cares for her as his most precious possession that both can have their needs fully met (see Ephesians 5:22,25).

So then the question becomes - why do we seem to have these natural desires? What purpose do they fulfill? So far, my only answer is that maybe the complementary nature of the male and female desires serves to bring two people together in unity. If relationships, friendship, and love are sufficient "final causes," then perhaps this justifies the beauty of women in fulfilling one of life's objectives.

What do you think?