{"id":109195,"date":"2023-04-13T13:31:49","date_gmt":"2023-04-13T17:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/discovergrace.com\/?p=109195"},"modified":"2023-09-19T15:51:16","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T19:51:16","slug":"the-myth-of-the-ideal-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/discovergrace.com\/the-myth-of-the-ideal-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"The Myth of the Ideal Woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s something amazing about a little girl who\u2019s too young to understand gender stereotypes. She\u2019s fearlessly free.<\/span><\/p>\n

When one of my daughters was four, she brought home the worst school picture she\u2019s ever taken. She was a frenzy of energy back then \u2013 so wild, she\u2019d actually knocked one of her front teeth all the way back up into her gums. When it reemerged a few months later, it was perpendicular to her other teeth. I remember slipping the school picture out of its envelope, as we both gasped in unison. Her hair was frizzed out like a mane, her gnarly teeth barred in such a fierce smile, she almost looked leonine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOh my gosh!\u201d she exclaimed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I was about to stuff it right back into the envelope, when \u2013 with a voice full of wonder \u2013 she cried, <\/span>\u201cI\u2019m so beautiful!\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The \u201cPerfect\u201d Woman<\/span><\/h1>\n

This is the way we see ourselves when we\u2019re young. There\u2019s nothing wrong with us. We\u2019re not too fat or too skinny, too shy or too bossy, too competitive or too lazy. We\u2019re just breathtakingly, miraculously <\/span>us<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And then the world chimes in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m not a guy, so I can\u2019t speak for men, but here\u2019s what the world says to women:<\/span><\/p>\n