Real Talk Over Coffee: Victoria’s Sacred

April 14, 2012

Hi friends, I am so very excited to start this new series on IHOD, because I feel as women, we seek to be encouraged and uplifted by each other. This series will cover many topics and experiences, and I hope it will inspire and uplift your spirit. I don’t guaranty you will always agree with what I say or what my guest posters write, but I do hope on the most part this series can become one you look forward to reading every Saturday with your cup of coffee (I have mine in hand)!
Let me introduce you to Elizabeth, who writes over here. My sister is a friend of hers so when she shared this post, I read it mouth agape and glued to the screen. I identified with it. I think you will to. I took excerpts from the full post, so take a moment to read and leave your thoughts!
(image via here. Trying to track down the source.)
“It was a night in the Fall and my Facebook newsfeed was blowing up, as it tends to do, when there is some important sporting event or national crisis or holiday taking place. But the guys and girls weren’t posting about their favorite team or what they were eating for Thanksgiving. For guys, the statuses went something like this:
Dude…
And the girls, like this:
…Never looking in the mirror again.
My Facebook friends were watching the Annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
I’ve only seen a snippet of it, but the part I saw included an interview with one of the “angels” (what they call the lingerie models.) She spoke about dreams and following them and how any girl can be whatever she wants to be if she just believes, etc. and generally, this seemed to be a large part of the feel of the show. Building self-confidence. Empowering women. And while it may empower the models in some ways, we can’t help but notice that it does quite the opposite to most of the female viewers. Again, you need only look at the Facebook statuses. Most girls and women I know who see a Victoria’s Secret model think not, oh that’s so empowering, I feel better about myself, but instead, oh wow, I’m so ugly. She’s so hot. How can I ever look like her?
..Often the answers involve some sort of reason for why the models aren’t really that great so that we can feel better about ourselves.. 
Some will answer the problem with the classic “every girl is beautiful” concept. Dove does this in many of their ads by taking “regular women” (makeup-less, different shapes and sizes) and having them model in underwear. But while many of us may feel comparatively better about ourselves because of this type of campaign, it doesn’t seem to be enough. We want to know why we’re beautiful. And we want to know we are beautiful even while standing next to a Victoria’s Secret model.
I am going to suggest that the answer to this problem lies in our recognition of the fact that we are sacred. There was a time when this was commonly accepted. There was a time when a man would kneel down and kiss every woman’s hand because she was a woman. But by the fault of both men and women we have created a culture in which women are either treated as men or as sex objects. Rarely something in between, and too often they are treated as both. Many women don’t like the idea of being labeled because of their womanhood. But the truth is, this labeling is the only way our daughters and sisters and mothers and friends—ourselves—will ever truly feel beautiful. We need to bring back the age-old concept of the woman as sacred. In Part Two, I will address how we go about doing this.” -Elizabeth Hannah (You can read part Two here.)

Leave a Comment

  • I have a feeling I am going to love this new series!

    -Amy
    http://theblankpagesblog.blogspot.com/

  • I love this new series Anna, I’m so excited to see what the topic will be next week 🙂

    Couldn’t agree more with this post, I think is such a fine line between women expressing themselves and showing off their femininity and exploiting themselves and making others feel extremely insecure.

    xxx
    Jenna

  • This is fantastic Anna. Such a blessing and I can’t wait to see God work through it! Praying for you and your fantastic witness on this blog girlie. Have a blessed weekend. xo

  • I’m a new reader of yours and this series sounds amazing!! what a great message to our hearts as women of any age..so i love this idea for saturdays and will be joining in ready with my cup of tea:))

    http://alignabluhm.blogspot.com/
    Somekindofparadise..

  • I’m really looking forward to you continuing these posts! you’re such a fabulous lady!

  • I think we also see ourselves differently than others see us – and we tend to forget that. I happen to think that every one of my friends is absolutely beautiful. I see them on good and bad days and they are always so beautiful to me! Do they feel that way about themselves? Do they know? Even models don’t walk around feeling beautiful all day, every day. It has to come from within first – which is the hardest part to achieve! Building each other up helps.
    And of course, Anna, YOU are so beautiful!!!

  • Thank you so much for sharing this post.

    xoxo
    ~Natasha Fatah~
    ~Natasha Fatah~

  • I’m really liking this series! This post couldn’t ring more true to heart! Girls I know were changing their profile pictures to the VS models and saying how fat they feel! Then everyone was pinning juice cleanses and workouts constantly. Not for good but for feeling inadequate! I think if anything the VS models have is confidence and THATS what the girls want so badly.

  • I agree that it is thoughtful of you to share these. Contemporary feminism is still relevant. So much of blogging and the internet is focused on consumerism, buying ‘beauty’ and showing off. I do worry what messages young girls receive about what our culture really values about women- namely their bodies. Fortunately, many are intelligent and strong enough to still be content with themselves and value the right things. Still, it’s refreshing to hear these ideas being discussed and widely shared. Cheers!

  • yes and more yes to this new series Anna! ignite and inspired shares between us ladies of the world really does bring about a certain brightness within our internal light bulbs. mine turned up to 100 watts after reading Elizabeth’s share! what a beautiful writer and wordsmith.

    ah comparison and its many road rashed induced pot holes. she’s nailed it with a resonant truth. well done and well said! ♥

  • good read! thank you for sharing it with us.

  • one of the best posts i ve ever read on blogs!!well there is this problem that many girls-women try to look like a model and thus many of these girls are lead to anorexia!!every girl is beautiful but she needs to find out that element that makes her gorgeous!! we need to understand that having a nice body ,it doesn;t mean that we are stunning…focusing on the inside of our soul will make our day and so being in a good mood we are capable of fixing everything!!i also love the cinderella story you wrote on part 2!!

    ps:hope every girl is happy with who/what she is..if not she can work on it!! 🙂

    have a nice day ladies!! 🙂

  • What a great post! It is sad that we women feel so insecure about our looks. I think a strong faith and a wonderful husband can help us see past those insecurities and realize that we are beautiful in God’s eyes…and that’s all that really matters.

  • Thanks so much for sharing! I love the whole talk about dressing sacred and seeing oneself that way…and the analogy of Cinderella. PERFECT!

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  • I agree, I am going to love this series! I really enjoy reading when bloggers dish on “real” issues out there. Can’t wait to go read part two of Elizabeth’s article!

  • I love this! Sooo true!! Our pastor just preached on something like this today and I thought of this that I had read yesterday!

    I can’t wait for part 2!

    Kirsten
    {travandkirk.blogspot.com}

  • What a lovely post and sentiment! She is right on – why can’t women just be women sometimes? Taking it back and regarding women as sacred is a beautiful start!

    xoxo,
    Chic ‘n Cheap Living

  • what a gift this perspective is. thank you for sharing. i’m super pumped for the rest of this series : )

  • I’m usually not online much on the weekends. But I will definitely be back saturday mornings. What a lovely post. Like Charlotte said “the victorians were on to something”.

  • Loved this! Can’t wait to read more of the series. I definitely have a problem comparing myself to airbrushed models, so it’s nice to get some perspective. Thank you!

  • love this series idea!!

  • Amazing topic. In fact, I was hoping you would do a post about this :). I am sharing with everyone!!

    Cheers.

  • Love this Anna, thanks for sharing.

  • This blew me away, thank you for sharing Anna and for taking such a stand and being such a great role model.

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