“Beauty,” writes Laurent, “is not, or not only, a given essence, it is also and perhaps especially the result of an individual and social construction. It can therefore be regulated” This article presents and comments on the anthropologist’s book and shows how examining the “feminine marriage” attests to the existence of an inverted relation between beauty and marriage. It also renews the issue of sexual differentiation through a fundamental question: if there are so few matrilineal societies, could it be that emphasizing beauty and femininity creates instability, while masculine domination and exchange offers security?