Folks in England recently did a research and determined a woman’s universally perfect face, or “scientifically the most beautiful face in the world”, which landed the woman a gig with some cosmetics brands. I didn’t ask any women what they think about this and am curious to read any comments about it.

Hébert, by contrast, finds beauty in health and strength through physical activity, and mostly, the elusive quality of grace:

The gait of primitive women in exotic countries, bare footed and without corsets, is so much more graceful, as a result of the supple freedom of hip movement, something many traveling authors never failed to notice, struck by that vision. It is the natural suppleness contrasting the stiffness of civilized women wearing corsets and high heels, obvious proof that all that destroys natural proportions or encumbers the free play of the muscles, in one word “deforms”, can only produce ugliness.

(…)

True grace is the outcome of simple  and natural movements instinctively executed by an integrally developed body. How can one bend gracefully if the low back muscles are not developed? How can one throw and object with elegance and dexterity if the body is untrained, not flexible? Movements are always ugly or awkward when, as a result of lack of muscles or training, they are faked or incomplete.

To be flexible, agile and harmonious, trained muscles are required, a specific quality achieved only through work. This quality, which we could call muscular intelligence, can be summarized in the following way: to not do any useless movements.