{"id":3006,"date":"2012-07-28T06:00:53","date_gmt":"2012-07-28T10:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rachelmariestone\/?p=3006"},"modified":"2012-07-28T06:00:53","modified_gmt":"2012-07-28T10:00:53","slug":"using-god-backup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rachelmariestone\/2012\/07\/28\/using-god-backup\/","title":{"rendered":"On using God as backup for enforcing white middle-class standards of beauty and grooming"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

On using God as backup for enforcing white middle-class standards of beauty and grooming.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Recently I read back through just a bit of Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman<\/em><\/a> by Anne Ortlund\u2013because I vaguely remembered that there was something in there that had once had a grip on my mind\u2013and I only had to suffer through 43 pages until I found it:<\/p>\n

\u201c..my advice to all is: when you first become conscious in the morning, get decent. I know some people say [pray] first, but don\u2019t you sort of feel sorry for God when daily he has to face all those millions of hair curlers and old robes? What if <\/em>you were the Almighty, and got prayed to with words spoken through all those unbrushed teeth? It seems to me like the ultimate test of grace.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

(Hm, so I should have compassion on God and look good before I pray?)<\/p>\n

She goes on to pose a number of questions like these:<\/p>\n

\u201cHow are your hips, thighs, tummy?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cDo you need to get into that jogging suit and run?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHow is your hair?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat kind of program are you on to stretch, bend, and stay supple, to stand tall; to be a good advertisement of God\u2019s wonderful care of his children?\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(So I have to look good not only for God but for everyone else, too?)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From about age 15 or so, I used to get up early to use the NordicTrack<\/a> or to do some idiotic aerobics routine<\/a> before school, for 2 reasons:<\/p>\n

1. I didn\u2019t think I deserved to eat breakfast until I\u2019d exercised<\/p>\n

and<\/p>\n

2. I didn\u2019t think God wanted to hear from me unless I was \u2018disciplined\u2019 enough to exercise regularly.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Being a typical American teenager, it didn\u2019t even occur to me that God might have bigger things to worry about than whether I reached my target heart rate or ate too many grams of saturated fat. I\u2019m pretty sure 1996<\/a> had enough injustice, war, natural disaster, famine, and other stuff going on that God wouldn\u2019t have minded hearing the prayers through unbrushed teeth or from girls who chose to do something with their spare time besides fitness and beauty maintenance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

surely I\u2019m not the only one who had a caboodle?<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m pretty sure that somewhere, deep down, I knew that God didn\u2019t care<\/a> what I looked like. Nonetheless, pleasing God by looking good <\/strong>was bound up in my mind and body with actually doing<\/em> good in the world.<\/p>\n

In The Beauty Myth<\/a>, <\/em>Naomi Wolf<\/a> argues that the pressure on women to attain to an unrealistic standard of beauty has\u00a0 increased<\/em> along with women\u2019s freedoms in other areas of society. A study of archived letters from students at Smith College suggests that women before suffrage (1920) were more likely to worry about needing to GAIN weight, while women after, almost universally, worried about needing to LOSE weight.<\/p>\n

{Why? To take up less space? To look better in the \u2018flapper\u2019 style? To eschew feminine curves for a more androgynous appearance?}<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This problem, it\u2019s not unlike my Audrey Hepburn problem<\/a>. But it\u2019s worse in some ways, too, because claims like Anne Ortlund\u2019s use God as backup for enforcing white middle-class standards of beauty and grooming.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And her book isn\u2019t the only one to do that. Lots of the \u2018Christian\u2019 diet books out there do the same thing. And that\u2019s<\/em> what had me so upset<\/a> about the article in Relevant<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

Because what\u2019s good? And what does God want from us?<\/p>\n

{100 sit-ups and 100 push-ups every morning? Detoxification \u2018cleanses\u2019?}<\/em><\/p>\n

NO\u2013<\/p>\n

To do justice.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

To love mercy<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

To walk humbly<\/a> with God.<\/em><\/p>\n

{repost from the archives.}<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On using God as backup for enforcing white middle-class standards of beauty and grooming. Recently I read back through just a bit of Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman by Anne Ortlund\u2013because I vaguely remembered that there was something in there that had once had a grip on my mind\u2013and I only had to suffer through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2070,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOn using God as backup for enforcing white middle-class standards of beauty and grooming<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On using God as backup for enforcing white middle-class standards of beauty and grooming. 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