A Beauty Coalition? - Deconstructing Marinella’s Essentialist Beauty

Abstract

This essay argues that, despite her commendable attempt of subversion, Lucrezia Marinella’s thesis that “women possess superior spirituality owing to their higher physical perfection,” while “men who are moderate creatures can raise themselves to the knowledge and contemplation of the divine essence,” ultimately perpetuates a dependency on patriarchal definitions of identity and virtue that cannot be reclaimed as empowering. It becomes critical to make it clear early on that this paper does not assess her project in terms of historical intent or feminist success. Rather, it interrogates the aesthetic logic she mobilises and the structural limits of subversion grounded in visual and bodily hierarchies. To this end, the paper first outlines Marinella’s argumentative strategy, identifying its internal tensions and contradictions, and examines the aesthetic trap of beauty as empowerment and the theoretical implications of failed subversion.