Frequently when I talk about beauty of a woman or some women I get accused of being shallow. These people are confused.
Beauty is not something that's limited to women. There can be a beautiful forest. There can be a beautiful song or a beautiful poem. In both cases there is nothing shallow about either the beautiful object or the love thereof. In case of beauty in nature, it is something that man has not created and cannot re-create, which means that it must be treated respectfully. And in case of beauty in art, it is something that takes talent and effort to produce and likewise deserves respect.
Is it shallow for women to seek to be attractive? Russian women are very much into being beautiful and they are not shallow. They have a rigorous educational system in which they learn a lot more than do Americans in school, and they have extensive knowledge of literature and arts. Many of them also know what hardship is. Here are women who are smart and strong, as well as beautiful. And the more Americans deal with such women, the less credible will be the case of people who want to claim beauty – or love of beauty - to be shallow.
Are women “objectified” by stress on beauty? I suppose it can be exasperating if you are a brilliant woman and all people care about is the size of your breasts; however that is not what beauty is about. There are values and there are misuses of values. That something lends to being used for wrong does not make it wrong in itself. For that matter intelligence and strength can also be used for wrong, but it does not make these things wrong. That stupid teenagers abuse unattractive classmates, or that unscrupulous plastic surgeons exploit women's insecurities to keep already attractive women coming back for more treatments, does not damn beauty. It damns the teenagers and the plastic surgeons.
Is the forest objectified by being regarded as beautiful? Is a poem or a song? Or is it simply a matter of aesthetic appreciation for beauty in all things, including in people?
So I would like here to stand up to these errors. There is nothing incompatible between beauty and other good traits; and there is nothing incompatible between loving beauty and being a good person. There are enough real causes out there that people should not be wasting their and everyone else's time on completely wrongful directions of feminism. Correct this wrongful direction in feminism and then go on fighting for legitimate causes such as domestic violence and incest.