Strength and Beauty

Yesterday Inari-san told me that he thinks strength and beauty do not go together, and that if a woman is weak, she must be very beautiful.

I thought it was a strange thing to think and say, but I didn’t argue because maybe many Japanese people think that way and maybe it’s part of the Japanese culture for “beautiful” women to be weak. But personally I completely disagree, and I don’t think that beauty should make a person, especially a woman, weak. I don’t think that being strong makes a woman “ugly”.

In fact, I think strength is beautiful. I think a woman who can do things on her own is beautiful. I think a woman who can find strength even when life is difficult is beautiful. Men are known for their physical strength but women have their own strengths too and I think we should be proud of it, and not let anyone judge us negatively because of it.