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zeynepakkalyoncu's review against another edition
4.0
While I agree that such an important topic could (and should) be presented more eloquently, this was by far one of the most influential books I've read in my life. It helped me come to terms with many mental inconsistencies in my life, and consider various perspectives that had not occurred to me before. Despite the poor writing style (and lack of scientific basis in some parts that are pleasantly far more popular in certain contemporary feminist books), I urge all women to read this book. I imagine men would also benefit greatly if they can see through the propaganda-like prose at times.
haileyelianna's review against another edition
4.0
I had a love/hate relationship with this book. It is written by an academic and Naomi does not hesitate to let you know that through her writing! It was definitely not an easy read and I often found myself dreading picking it up and just dying to get it over with... There are so many statistics, so much information packed into the pages, and there are a lot of run-on sentences (at least in my opinion, I’m sure they’re grammatically correct but there were so many overly-long sentences that were hard to follow) and it was not written, overall, in a way that allows easy reading. This is a book you need to be REALLY ready to read and really want to learn from. Keep in mind, it is now about 30 years old, but while many statistics and examples may be outdated, the content of the book is just as relevant today as it ever was.
I am a feminist. I support anyone in whatever they want to do as long as it does not harm anyone or themselves. I believe in body positivity. I am against diet-culture. This book spoke to me in such a grand way, I truly was clutching onto my pencil throughout the whole thing, marking up the pages with notes and drawing parentheses in the margins by the many amazing points I found within the pages. The main theme of the book is how women are negatively affected by the media and how the patriarchy uses the media to keep women too busy with trivial obsessions to excel in other walks of life. Is this true for all women? No, but it is true for MANY women. I see that many people were not amused by Naomi’s hatred of dieting, but I must say that I agree with pretty much everything in the book and I would recommend it to pretty much any women over twenty years old. We are fed a narrative that we, as women, are never good enough, hot enough, sexual enough, and we internalize that narrative, project it onto others, and make ourselves miserable. If you’d like to take a step away from self-loathing and learn how to embrace your true self, this book will probably speak to you as much as it did to me.
I am a feminist. I support anyone in whatever they want to do as long as it does not harm anyone or themselves. I believe in body positivity. I am against diet-culture. This book spoke to me in such a grand way, I truly was clutching onto my pencil throughout the whole thing, marking up the pages with notes and drawing parentheses in the margins by the many amazing points I found within the pages. The main theme of the book is how women are negatively affected by the media and how the patriarchy uses the media to keep women too busy with trivial obsessions to excel in other walks of life. Is this true for all women? No, but it is true for MANY women. I see that many people were not amused by Naomi’s hatred of dieting, but I must say that I agree with pretty much everything in the book and I would recommend it to pretty much any women over twenty years old. We are fed a narrative that we, as women, are never good enough, hot enough, sexual enough, and we internalize that narrative, project it onto others, and make ourselves miserable. If you’d like to take a step away from self-loathing and learn how to embrace your true self, this book will probably speak to you as much as it did to me.
dimky's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
5.0
this book put into words so many things that i’ve felt but couldn’t quite express, and so many more that i had never thought of. beautifully written, made me cry, everyone should read
cewitherow's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
This book literally shifted my perspective on media and the beauty industry. Genuinely life changing, I feel more confident about myself and how I move and take up space in the world after reading this book.
sachaferg's review against another edition
4.0
this was really interesting. i liked how it covered so many areas, from work to health to advertising. since this was first written in 1990 it's interesting to see how much of it is dated and how much of it is still true.
elfi_reads's review against another edition
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
3.0
It’s an old classic, and should be read as an old classic. Not a modern literature. There are way more people than men and women in today’s world and we should talk about them. That not only men r*pe, not only women go through all the violence because of the ED and beauty myth, the world is much more complex than men are bad and women are victims. Patriarchy is a huge problem and becomes more of a problem every day, but we don’t need to use old books like they mirror reality and especially realities of marginalised communities. There was also no (or very little) mention of the race and Disability struggle when it comes to femininity/masculinity, beauty, violence and ugliness. But again: it’s an old book. And we should treat it that way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Vomit
R*pe is a HUGE thing in this book, I don’t understand how people can mark it as “mild trigger warning for sexualised violence” and such. There is at least one chapter only about r*pe, but it s also topic in good half or more of the book. As well as description of different SA practices, eating disorder practices including “how they hunger” and “how they v*mit”.veronicaa_white's review against another edition
5.0
Although I understand a lot of things have probably changed since this book was published in the 90's, I still feel that so much of the ideas discussed are still relevant to women around the world today. Eating disorders still plague huge percentages of young women, and cosmetic surgeries are still on the rise - it's clear to see that women are still not happy in our bodies. Interesting and thought provoking, I hope that one day we will be able to live in the future that Wolf describes in the final chapter.
virtualmima's review against another edition
informative
4.5
If all forms of advertising were made illegal, it would be much easier to destroy patriarchy and consumerism.