Angelina Jolie has been in the news frequently this month.
And the news about her has centered on her breasts. Neither is entirely novel
nor shocking, except for the fact that most are now are spending their time
commenting on the absence of those parts of her body, rather than their
presence. For those who have managed to avert their eyes better than me in the
checkout line of every grocery store, Mrs. Jolie has undergone a double
mastectomy in an attempt to ensure that she does not develop deadly breast
cancer in the future. Admittedly, the media attention this story has gained
nearly begs for a blog to be written about our culture's preoccupation with
female anatomy, the shameful sexualization and blatant objectifying of women,
or even our idolatrous infatuation with the personal lives of celebrities. And
as relevant and important as all these topics are, they are blogs for another
day. Instead, what has piqued my curiosity the most in this story
is her husband, Brad Pitt’s reaction, or, more specifically, our reaction to Brad’s reaction, for it
gives me both great hope and much angst.
In one sense, the fact that Brad has stood publicly next to
his wife and offered her unwavering support gives me much to applaud. Indeed, the press coverage his statements of
support have generated are enough proof that many folks doubted that he would
stand by her. Which leads me to the second point. I am disappointed in a
culture who applauds a man simply because he is willing to stay with his wife and support
her, love her, find her beautiful, and continue to be faithful to her, even when
her breasts are gone. I am disappointed, because this is exactly what Brad
committed to when he stood at the altar and promised to walk with Angelina “in
sickness and health.” I am disappointed because, perhaps unknowingly, our media
is speaking out of both sides of it's mouth about women, and beauty, and identity, and covenants. On the one had they want to hold Angelina up as an example of
female heroism, a picture of a modern women who finds her worth in something
other than her physical beauty. They want to use Angelina as a picture of the
age-to-come, as the successful woman of the future. I believe she can be viewed
as all those things. But at the same time, they are watching Brad equally as close because they are desperate to know if any of those statements are actually true. Their applaud
for Brad is a blow to Angelina because it affirms what many woman silently fear, perhaps my partner won't love me if my beauty was gone. It only becomes national news
when a man sticks it out with a breast-less woman, in a nation in which that has become so uncommon. That gives me angst.
Perhaps I can frame this conversation another way. What if I were to close this blog today with the following statement:
Today I want to publicly honor all the men who also chose to continue to love their wives and honor their wedding vows despite the fact that their wives had a limb amputated after the Boston Marathon bombing. You may not be married to a supermodel, but your integrity and courage is no less noted.
Does it not sound a bit odd? And is there not something utterly and profoundly ugly behind the congratulation of the men who would stand by their woman despite the loss of a limb? What these husband's are telling their wives is still the minority voice in our culture. It is not that woman can still be found beautiful without their breasts, their arms, their foot, or their hair. We need to begin to help women understand that they are, quite simply, beautiful.
In the creation story found in the book of Genesis we are told that man is the pinnacle of God's creation and that, in turn, woman is created as the pinnacle of all humankind. It is as if in the creation of women God said "now watch this." In doing so he declared the first woman beautiful because she was made in his image, the image of a God who had no human form, a God without breasts, hips, or long legs. A God who longed for his creatures to see one another with eyes that were also made in his image, eyes that see value in every life because they can see the image of the creator staring back at them.
