The greatest authority on the beauty of a woman is in the Word. The following are words that God inspired on the subject: Genesis 12:14 "When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very Beautiful woman." Genesis 29:17 "Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was Beautiful." 1 Samuel 25:3 "His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and Beautiful woman," Esther 2:7 "Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was Beautiful." Job 42:15 "Nowhere in all the land were there found women as Beautiful as Job’s daughters," Revelation 21:2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride Beautifully dressed for her husband. The Holy Spirit breathed these scriptures and that is good enough for me. The Word even speaks to a woman's figure as well.

I think the problem is not beauty itself, but the idolization of beauty that is the problem. Facial beauty is something that cannot be achieved through effort. So what message does it send to so-called "average" girls when our culture clearly gives preferential treatment to beautiful women? What message does it send "pretty girls" about achievement and hard work? As a married woman I often do not wear makeup because I find the gaze of men uncomfortable and unwanted. I want to be seen as a person, not stared at like a fancy car.

Beautiful Women God created the heavens, earth, plants, animals, finally God from the crude, out of dust, created man in his own image. Adam must've been the best looking. "God saw everything, and behold it was very good!" And although "behold, it was very good! God improved even on that, instead of dust God began with what was already"very good". Took a rib and made woman! Adam must've said, "WOW! Rev 12 And there appeared in heaven a great wonder, a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars. Pr.He who finds a wife, (because of her) finds favor with the Lord." women receive special grace. Why men are called the bride of Christ, in many respects we are to become like women, sensitive. Why men told do themselves a favor-love the wife. We know that women, praise God, are of a higher order. Warning- God's women's Lib is 1Pe3:1, trust the man to God, Is.3:12 Pr31:30 Ep5;22,Zep 2:3. Meekness

Physical beauty is a gift. However, it is temporary. I would recommend reading the original version of the Portrait of Dorian Gray. It can be downloaded free from Amazon and other sites. Powerful story of a beautiful face that sells itself for the pleasures of the world.

Something very fascinating occurs when I first converse with a woman whom I consider physically beautiful. Before that initial conversation, all I know about her is her outward appearance (and possibly how she interacts with some people around her.) During and after the first conversation, I begin to understand her as a PERSON. Suddenly her outward appearance is not the driving force in determining my opinion of her. Never again am I able to simplify her into JUST a person with external beauty. So I totally understand why Musburger said what he did. The football game itself was boring, the camera swung to Ms. Webb, and he responded both with his honest impression of what he saw and also included the joke about quarterbacks. Musburger, as far as I know, has never spoken with Webb. He could not add anything more specific, for example, such as "What a beautiful woman .... did you know that she volunteers at a food pantry twice a month?"

I have to agree with Lauren on this one. It seems that women (and men, too -- but to a far lesser extent) are often viewed as objects rather than human beings. When we feel free to go on-and-on about a person's outward appearance (which they carefully cultivate, in this example) we're objectifying them. And even if they approve and want the attention -- it doesn't mean that it's a positive thing. You'd think that a site like CT would do more to counter these cutural norms rather than buy into them. Disappointing to say the least.

"Had Webb been a plain, mousy woman her appearance would likely have gone unnoticed." I don't know about that; it sounds a little naive. Susan Boyle was excoriated for looking the way she did on TV. Heck, spend 30 seconds reading reports about what women were wearing to the Golden Globes last night... and read what people SAY about what women were wearing. It's absolutely brutal. There's also a level of gender politics left out of this commentary. What's disturbing and creepy about the situation is two men objectifying a young woman; the fact that she's a beauty queen is totally irrelevant there. These guys were supposed to be doing their job (that is, presumably, saying something about football), and instead they were evaluating this woman on her appearance. And this sort of thing goes on All. The. Time. We live in a culture that is forever telling women they are not beautiful/sexy/holy/fill-in-the-blank enough. We don't need any more of that. beginthebeguinage.blogspot.com

First of all, I thank you, Laura, for bringing up for discussion the subject of what is a healthy attitude towards the beauty of womanhood. Women should not feel squeamish about being beautiful, as you so well state. God made you uniquely beautiful, gave you a beauty overlay if you will, compared to us men, to whom he gave a strength overlay. Each is made to compliment the other, so that together a couple in union forms a binity, two-in one you might say. He also was not stingy in bestowing these gifts. Certainly women's beauty plays a key role in procreation, but it goes way beyond that. Without going into awkward details, imagine all women looking EXACTLY like a man in all anatomical regions except for just that central one. That would still create plenty of attraction to keep the species going quite well. So all that extra beauty is totally bonus, but is it just surplus? I think not. You beautify the human landscape, like countless other features do the other landscapes. Bless you.

I agree with Cherry. When I say something or someone is beautiful, I am responding with my senses. When someone says or does something I appeciate sensually I may well say, "You're beautiful." or "That was beautiful." What is the old saying, "Beauty is as beauty does." Thanks for the post.

TV actress Mayim Bialik (Amy Farrah Fowler on "The Big Bang Theory") makes very strong statements about her own commitments to dress and behave modestly, wherever she goes within the "Hollywood" culture. See http://kveller.com to read her comments about real beauty.