What many people perceive as beauty is merely fertility. Fertility is important, but beauty much more so.
Recently, I was introduced to the metric standard unit of misogyny. By which I refer to Arthur Schopenhauer's quote about women, saying "a
few years with a richness of beauty and a, fulness of charm at the
expense of the rest of their lives."
As I was driving this morning, I realized he had profoundly conflated women's beauty with women's fertility. That poor, confused schmuck. My instincts were to blame the commercialization of sexuality, the Disney channel, the Top 40, etc. These easy answers naturally faded when I recalled Schopenhauer lived a long time ago (1788 -1860).
Women's fertility is in fact fleeting. There is profound biological evidence there. It comprises a small proportion of their live's timelines. It is,to a large extent, under no control of theirs and exists only within the confines of their own skin.
Beauty, however, is a choice women, just like men, have at every moment of their lives. It requires effort, study and practice. It spans far beyond their insides to the world around them, just like a farmer's fields stretch for acres and acres.
So which do you think deserves more celebration? I choose beauty.
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