{"id":190,"date":"2016-02-18T06:30:38","date_gmt":"2016-02-18T11:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithchelsen\/?p=190"},"modified":"2016-02-19T06:57:46","modified_gmt":"2016-02-19T11:57:46","slug":"beauty-boudoir-photos-and-christian-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithchelsen\/2016\/02\/beauty-boudoir-photos-and-christian-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Beauty, Boudoir Photos, and Christian Women"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

When \u201cPlease, please, please\u201d is the subject line of a friend\u2019s email, you know something\u2019s wrong. Last week, a friend of mine sent an email asking Faith and I to \u201cplease, please, please\u201d\u00a0respond to some unsettling\u00a0notions in a recent Christianity Today <\/em>article<\/a> proposing boudoir <\/em>photography as beneficial for some Christian women.<\/p>\n

The article, \u201cFinding Healing in Front of the Camera,\u201d is a part of a Her.meneutics series tackling female perspectives on sex not typically covered in your ladies Bible study. A much-needed series of discussion. However, recommendations for\u00a0erotic bedroom\u00a0photography is something I\u2019d expect in Cosmopolitan<\/em>, not Christianity Today<\/em>. So I was a bit surprised by the premise.<\/p>\n

In the article, author Maureen Farrell Garcia explains:<\/p>\n

Given our current cultural context, in which many women feel pressure to attain an impossible beauty ideal, I love the idea of women pursuing boudoir shoots to embrace their bodies and overcome hangups with their own sexuality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Garcia briefly raises concerns over the potential for idolatry and pornography. She even shares her husband \u201cstruggled with voyeurism and porn\u201d and understands why some Christian\u00a0women and men would take issue. Ultimately though, she nods in agreement with the racy photos as a means for women to find themselves attractive again, especially after sexual violence and abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who has experienced sexual violation,\u201d Garcia writes. \u201cI believe these sessions could help heal and empower women who have been mistreated or abused.\u201d I applaud Garcia for being so open and honest with her readers, and I appreciate her well-intentioned efforts to help assaulted women. However, she seems to advocate for\u00a0women\u2019s fulfillment in\u00a0superficial\u00a0notions of beauty, and, their further\u00a0sexual objectification.<\/p>\n

Women in the Church know better. Our\u00a0beauty is not found in the bedroom.<\/p>\n

Consider the reality of Garcia\u2019s advice. God forbid I ever experience a sexual assault, but \u201cGo take boudoir photos so you can feel sexy again\u201d is absolutely not what I would want to hear from the women in my church after such a traumatic experience. Personally, I would feel more deflated.<\/p>\n

Women inside and outside of the Church already struggle with misplacing our value in our appearance, and yearning for\u00a0men and other women deem us attractive.\u00a0But as Christians, we know that\u00a0sex and sexuality is not the end all be all. So suggesting women find fulfillment in our sexuality and affirmation of our bodies by objectifying them in front of a camera doesn\u2019t help us. What does help is being reminded that no matter how we look or how much another has violated us, we are beautiful because we are fearfully and wonderfully made by our Creator and crafted in His image.<\/p>\n

When half-awake, full bed head, no make-up and fluffy slippers is when my husband knows reminding me how beautiful he finds me is most affirming. If, instead he said, \u201cGood morning, sweetheart. You\u2019re looking\u00a0disheveled this morning. Try curling your hair, getting half-dressed and taking pin-up pictures. You\u2019ll feel better.\u201d we\u2019d be in the pastor\u2019s office that afternoon for some serious marital counseling.<\/p>\n

Boudoir photos offer a phony image of what a woman\u2019s beauty and self-worth really look like. So they can never, ever offer women true healing from sexual trauma and abuse. Why would we as caring, compassionate women in the Church ever advocate our friends, sisters and daughters to seek such false perceptions of beauty and value out?<\/p>\n

Dr. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptists\u2019 Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, also disagreed with Garcia\u2019s advice, kindly writing<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cFor all our culture\u2019s supposed feminism, the message constantly bombarding women is that their worth is found in their sexual attractiveness and availability to men.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore continued:<\/p>\n

The way to combat the effects of sexual exploitation by men is not to fight fire with fire. The way to combat the effects of sexual exploitation by men is to re-narrate what a woman\u2019s worth and value is about, from the point of view of God in Christ.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As my friend who pleaded that I write on this issue wrote, \u201cIt seems this type of approach is a poor attempt at \u2018self-healing\u2019 or is it \u2018self-medicating\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know whether or not boudoir photos are \u201cself-medicating.\u201d What I do know is that God has a much, much better way for victims of sexual abuse to heal and find restoration. It\u00a0is to find their image in Jesus Christ and not in sexually charged photographs.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Women in the Church know better. Our beauty and worth aren’t found in bedrooms and pin-up photos. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2577,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,77,78],"tags":[81,80,79,133,134],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beauty","category-self-worth","category-women","tag-bedroom-photos","tag-boudoir-photos","tag-christianity-today","tag-self-worth","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"\nBeauty, Boudoir Photos, and Christian Women<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Women in the Church know better. 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