The Beauty Myth (1991)

Good arguments but presented really poorly. The first couple of chapters talk about the beauty myth like a conspiracy, as if there's a group of men holding meetings going "Hmm, how shall we make women feel inferior this time?" Naomi Wolf never clearly identifies "the oppressors" (which I infer from the text that it's a combination of various factors, including social hierarchy, the economy, and so on) though she does mention much later in the book that regular men are not into the thinness and beauty standards set by the beauty myth. For most of the book she writes as if women are victims with no agency of their own, and her very brief discussion of eating disorders reduces the women who suffer from them to victims who caved into societal and cultural pressure, whereas it comes from a combination of things including depression and genetics, rather than simply aggressive advertising. It's really a shame, since this is such an important topic that everyone, male or female, should read about, but it's just written about so poorly here, with little evidence to back things up. Despite these flaws, Wolf does, however, paint a very clear and precise picture of the ways that women's minds and bodies are attacked (psychologically, metaphorically) on a daily basis. ( )

This is one of those books that you intellectually know but need reminders from time to time that a lot of our beauty ideals are mass marketed from advertisers. At least I do.It's so easy to forget when it is so engrained in our culture that stick skinny is beautiful, perfect flawless skin [not going to happen for me no matter what.] and shiny hair, etc.Wolf's theory is that a lot of this started when women entered the workforce. The power base needed a new way to keep women down.I think she's not wrong but it's not the only reason the diet industry [totally the blame for the obesity epidemic] and cosmetic industry are so big. It's a huge factor for a lot of people. There's got to be a reason why so many guys aren't held to this level of perfection and feel entitled to a hot girl. Our movies, advertisement, culture do hold up what society feels but also is a huge pointer in how society are told to feel. Naomi Wolf makes that point about that in the place women's magazines have held in the cultural psyche. We place unfair and unrealistic burdens on ourselves for an unobtainable goal. Yes deep down we know that companies come up with new problems and solutions to sell stuff. It doesn't stop from me spending loads of money on moisturizers though.Personally, I heard more negative stereotypes from my mother that men were visual than in the movies. Movies and books would sometimes at least let the "plain" Jane get the career and guy. Alright, books sometimes let the plain girl get the happy ending.I think some of the negative reviews I read on Amazon gleamed from the fact they thought Wolf was placing all the blame on men. Wolf divided the beauty standards into categories and the first one happened to be the work place where women's appearances have been used against them. Men do get away with sexual harassment if their target is beautiful [she was asking for it] and if she's "ugly" [it's not harassment if they are making fun of you apparently.]It's a fact that men do make more than women without a degree in many fields. It was probably especially so when this book was published.She also gives us background information in how ad copiers have power to censor the magazines by pulling adverts if they run something that opposes the product they sell. Advertisers can be quite powerful. No one calls sexism when they pull from regular shows so I don't think Wolf is wrong here.I don't think it's man hating to say that a lot of feminism has died down because people think you have to hate men to be a feminist. Or that you have to be ugly to be feminist. I'm not ashamed to say I believe in equal rights for everyone. I'm not a beauty queen so I suppose that means nothing coming from me. [I only placed second in a first grade beauty pageant]Sexism is just one example out of many that those in power will use to keep the work labour cheaper.This book is out dated since botox hadn't reared it's ugly head yet. Women are being encouraged to get preemptive botox in their '20s and not to smile less they develop lines. That's hardly the fault of Wolf that she didn't predict that.In a nutshell it probably isn't telling us anything we don't know but what we keep forgetting since the beauty myth is so ingrained in our culture.Wolf hits it on target that the problem with the beauty myth is that it comes from outside approval so it can always be taken away. ( )

A rather modern academic book examining how beauty keeps women restrained in relation to: work, culture, religion, sex, hunger and violence.

I found this a great book to read with a grain of salt. The book presents much more of how the beauty myth operates rather than why, or examining the causality behind the beauty myth. In general much of the book reads as intuitively plausible, minus the quasi-conspiracy theory parts. A few generalizations seemed over the top, such as make-up sellers using cult practices to maximally promote their product. There are notes in the back of the book, but I would have found footnotes much more helpful to know while reading where the information is coming from. The strongest chapters were work, hunger, and sex.

On the other hand, Wolf does tend to beat a dead horse with repeating some of her ideas, especially in the beginning. Wolf also very quickly shuts down any argument with measures of beauty correlating to evolution. But it seems that a tiny bit of beauty reasoning might be found here, since cross culturally similar waist to hip ratios are preferred.

All in all this was a powerful read, showing many cases of brutality and unfairness against women. The book is very thought provoking as to what feminism means, and how to try and promote it without backlash.

If a second edition of this book were produced, it would be interesting to examine how stupidity has been eroticised, how the beauty myth has spread further to males, how gender presentation affects the beauty myth, and looking at the beauty myth with respect to queer people. If the beauty myth does exist, beyond the products existing, then I would like to see the causality and how it was created intentionally to keep women out of power explored more. The current version of The Beauty Myth is written and caters to a very straight, middle-class, white, and cis audience.

Nibble: “Having no fat means having no breasts, thighs, hips, or ass, which for once means not having asked for it."

I would recommend this to any woman who wants to examine their concept of beauty, and any person who wants to think more about this issue. ( )

The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf is mind-blowing...she discusses so many concepts that I had never consciously thought about or dissected, but which make so much (scary) sense. Everybody should read this book. Wolf discusses the rise of the beauty myth brought on by the Industrial Revolution, as class of women with money and time on their hands appeared and society needed a way of controlling them and diverting their energies, this was taken up by beauty and religion. After the World Wars, when religion had ebbed in social importance and women were entering the workplace and becoming self-reliant, the beauty myth really gained its momentum as a way of keeping those women in line. The unattainable quest for "beauty" ensures that women use up all of their energy on an ever-elusive goal as defined by the ever-changing landscape of fashion magazines, movies, advertisements, etc. It is also a billion dollar industry, basically tricking women into wasting their money on useless products that are used to stave off the "guilt" women feel about aging and not looking "perfect." The beauty myth is that there is some sort of objective, impartial and immutable standard by which a woman can be called "beautiful," when of course this changes all the time and is totally arbitrary. The beauty myth traps both women and men, who are likewise bullied and brainwashed into accepting the myth and then find themselves unable to relate to, comfort or even compliment women who are obsessed with their appearance...Her chapter on anorexia, which begins with a description of the disease and how we would react to it if it affected young men and not women, is powerful, frightening and insightful.

"Female fat is not in itself unhealthy. But female fat is the subject of public passion, and women feel guilty about female fat, because we implicitly recognize that under the myth, women's bodies are not our own but society's, and that thinness is not a private aesthetic, but a hunger a social concession exacted by the community. A cultural fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience. Women's dieting has become ... a never-ending passion-play given international coverage out of all proportion to the health risks associated with obesity, and using emotive language that does not figure even in discussions of alcohol or tobacco abuse. The nations seize with compulsive attention on this melodrama because women and men understand that it is not about cholesterol or heart rate or disruption of a line of tailoring, but about how much social freedom women are going to get away with or concede." (p. 187) ( )

What is the Beauty Myth? I've read a lot of discussion about body image, beauty standards, and objectification, and this book comes up often, but I didn't know what the central "myth" was. Now I think it's more of a network of myths, a Gordian knot that Naomi Wolf tries to slice through here. The Beauty Myth might be expressed:
1. The beauty standard is objective and immutable (often, "based in inescapable biological fact") rather than cultural.
2. Women's value is determined by their beauty. (value to society, partners, even themselves.)
3. While beauty standards are "immutable", women are not, and they have a duty to "better themselves" through beauty processes. (Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, with all the messy virtue/hard work/obligation baggage that idea brings.)
This is only part of it, but it's a good start, I hope.

When I first started reading this book (originally published in 1991), I wasn't sure it had aged well. The frantic world of 1980's business Naomi Wolf describes in the Employment section has shifted (though not for female broadcasters, as a local news retrospective spot I saw today, with images of the same anchorman with a different anchorwoman in each decade, attests). The stranglehold of women's magazines on women's dialogue that Wolf discusses is almost hilarious to someone whose reading on feminism and body image largely comes from blogs!

However, I soon began to find material that was more resonant with the present day. The dissections of language in advertising -- the spiritual, the martial -- were enlightening. The chapters on "Hunger" and "Sex" made the whole book for me. The section on the author's own experience with teen anorexia was poignant and added depth, but the entire section was chilling, and sadly, still extremely relevant. I have long found the pseudo-Puritan language of "virtue" around self-denial of food noticeable and creepy, so Wolf's detailed attention to this and other metaphors was really interesting to me. I found her discussion of the psychological and political implications of female hunger/dieting disturbing, provoking, amazing. "Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women's history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one."

The questions raised in the "Sex" section about the construction of desire and difference in heterosexual relationships were interesting and sharp as well. Finally, the closing sections, which call for change through creativity and positivity, were a pleasant dose of hope and encouragement after the depressing realities discussed throughout the book.

I wish I could say that this book hadn't aged well, but it has. While the web may have connected women with each other and given them chances to subvert, support, and connect across generational lines, it's also given an organizing boost to eating disorders, and added more channels for images of "beauty" and "sex" to enter our lives. I don't agree with everything in the book (and I'd love to read an updated version with new data and more focus on the beauty myths' effects on women of color) but the book is thought-provoking, pithy, and incisive. ( )