It's All Julia Roberts' Fault...

It's all Julia Roberts' fault. I kid you not. Julia has completely changed the way our society thinks about beauty. Now, in case you don't know who Julia Roberts is, let me show you a picture of her:

You're probably thinking to yourself: "Why did he cut out half of her face?" Actually, I didn't cut out half of her face. I only cut out about a sixth of her face. Her chin makes up one third of her face, and her smile makes up one half of her face. So you see, I really haven't cut out very much at all.

But let's face it. Julia Roberts is really a very beautiful woman. And now we seem to have redefined beauty in terms of long pointed chins and wide quirky smiles. Don't believe me? Well, you should. Take a look at these. All pictures of actresses currently starring in various television shows. Can you name them, based solely on their wide quirky smiles and pointed chins?

So...do you recognize those smiles? I'll give you some names, and see if that helps. In no particular order...

Evangeline Lilly from "Lost"
Poppy Montgomery from "Without A Trace"
Emily Proctor from "CSI: Miami"
Diane Farr from "Numb3rs"
Jennifer Finnigan from "Close To Home"
Kathryn Morris from "Cold Case"

Isn't that interesting? And I'm sure they're not the only pointy-chinned, quirky-smiled actresses on TV these days...these are just the ones I've happened to notice.

But it certainly is a good reminder that our notions of beauty are - to a large extent - defined by our society and our media. I think it's tragic that young women are pressured to conform to certain notions of beauty, when there is nothing lasting about those notions. I Peter 3:3-4 tells us that there is a notion of beauty which will last forever...it is "imperishable". It is the inner quality of the heart. How much better to spend our time paying attention to our inner character and behavior than our outward appearance!

And, to wrap things up, I have to confess, I don't really think it's Julia Roberts' fault. It's actually Peter Jackson's fault. Peter Jackson, whose picture is shown below:

No, no, I'm not saying all these women look like Peter Jackson. Peter Jackson looks like he could have come to us straight out of the Mines of Moria (by which I mean, he looks positively dwarvish, although perhaps there is a bit of the cave troll to him...)

But if you look at each of the women pictured above, you will realize that they all have something else in common...

...they don't look like dwarves or cave trolls, but they do all look like they could have come straight out of the forests of Lothlorien...by which I mean, they are positively elven in appearance. So perhaps it was Peter Jackson's LotR movies which brought us our current notion of beauty.

Posted On Dec 17, 2005 at 5:44 PM

On Dec 17, 2005 Laura wrote: I don't know if I'd go as far as saying that LotR has started some kind of beauty trend - maybe I will when women start going in for plastic surgery to make their ears pointy ;-)

Doug Replied: well, I dunno...I seem to recall someone I know going to great lengths to give themselves pointy ears...

On Dec 17, 2005 Beth wrote: oooooh Doug's askin' for it

Doug Replied:

On Dec 18, 2005 WOW wrote: Are you sure that is Peter Jackson? Looks like someone I know!

Doug Replied: I wondered who would be first to make that wisecrack!

On Dec 18, 2005 BackStage wrote: Huh?

Who are those people?

And I thought we hadn't gotten a new blog entry for so long because you were busy playing with your new computer/sound system. Turns out you were just watching too much TV.

Doug Replied: Well, your first theory was actually the correct one.

Besides, I haven't seen anything new on YOUR blog recently either!

On Dec 19, 2005 WOW wrote: Do you think Spock and Trent have been busy lately too? I haven't been able to find Backstage's blog yet. Help?

Doug Replied: Well, there certainly has not been a plethora of new blog entries lately.

Pastor Jon's Lectionary Journal

On Dec 19, 2005 Doug wrote: I just thought of another one.