Reply #20: if only women could really believe

[marions ghost]

that beauty comes from within...and not be so focused on physical features, but of course our culture instructs us from an early age that it's all about how you look on the surface. When you meet someone (male or female) who has an inner beauty that shines through, you hardly notice their physical "flaws" (flaws as defined by the fashion industry to keep us insecure and buying, buying...)

Jewelry, make-up, clothes -- fine for fun, but none of these do anything to help if the heart is not beautiful. Look at all the sprayed, fixed-up, touched-up, decked-out women around who are also brittle, selfish, mean, conniving. They look scary, not attractive.
(Except maybe to men who are equally narcissistic). Inner ugliness shows.

Right, if women are "the holders of beauty" we must be the ones to get beyond the cultural sterotypes and contemplate what beauty really is.