Beauty and the Expansion of Women’s Identity（美和女性身份的扩张）.pdf

Journal of Integral Theory and Practice Beauty and the Expansion of Women’s Identity Vanessa D. Fisher The history of women’s beauty is written in bodily gestures that express both the constraints of their culture as well as the unfolding desire of their interiority. Embracing the power of beauty has always been problematic for feminism and for good reason. We have yet to create a language for our own yearning or find an expression for our own radiance that could also embrace other women rather than attempt to outshine them. We have yet to acknowledge that our expression of beauty itself has an evolution that continually expands our embodiment through a process of reclaiming gestures. This article offers an AQAL analysis of the current views that dominate feminist discourse on women’s beauty. It is also a personal story of my own ongoing journey as a young woman trying to reclaim my beauty, for the benefit of all beings. A Personal Search for Beauty In eleventh century China, there lived a Taoist woman named Sun Pu-erh who sought the path of enlightenment. Sun Pu-erh’s dedication to truth caused her to search out one of the great enlightened masters of her time in hopes that he would take her as his student. The enlightened master soon came to recognize the passion and perseverance in Sun Pu-erh and told her that if she truly wished to attain immortality she would need to travel to Loyang, where she could cultivate the Tao. But when Sun Pu-erh revealed her face to her master he was taken aback by her beauty and told her that her beauty would remain an obstacle to her enlightenment. He denied permission for Sun Pu-erh to travel to Loyang for he believed she would be the constant tar