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A review by bgunnarson93
The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women by Naomi Wolf
5.0
THE BOOK BUG REVIEWS
MY TOP 3 FAVORITE IDEAS FROM THE BEAUTY MYTH BY NAOMI WOLF
Beauty is pain. From the time I was a small child I remember being taught this in a number of different ways. I remember being told that I had to wear tights and dress, but then not allowed to run and play like the boys because I would ruin my looks. I remember being forced to sleep in uncomfortable foam curlers so that my hair would have unnatural ringlets, even though they hurt my head, because it was pretty. As a woman, I have been taught to expect pain, violence, hunger, and illness if I want to succeed, but it doesn’t have to be this way and this manner of living should not be considered normal.
In her book “The Beauty Myth,” Naomi Wolf explores how beauty is used to control women and how it used to keep them in a lower social order so that the economic status quo is maintained. She works through several categories and reveals how women are continually oppressed through the use of this idea called beauty. The top three that stood out to me, were the workforce, hunger, and violence.
1. In the workforce, women are held to specific standards when it comes to dress and this devalues what they say because it is all about how they look. I love this point, because it reveals how our society thinks of women as a whole. We are not sentient beings that are to be valued for how we think and what we contribute to the workforce. Rather we are trophies to be admired and not just aesthetically admired, but sexually admired.
For example, female law students are taught that that in order to prevent a jury from being prejudiced against them they cannot wear pants, flats, or ponytails. They must always have make-up on. They must always be in a skirt and heals. They may never wear the same outfit twice with the same jury. Some trials last 9 weeks. That’s 40 outfits! Men may wear the same boring black suit every single day and never be questioned, but a woman may never wear a pantsuit because it gives the jury the impression that she is too aggressive and the lawyer could lose the case.
How terrible! The female lawyer is not persuasive because of what she says and how she presents her facts it is because she is wear heals and neutral tones. Men are taught that they can judge and admire or despise us based on what we wear, because a woman’s purpose is to entertain men’s visual fancies. They are not taught to appreciate us for our legitimate contribution to our careers.
2. Women are being taught that to be accepted, loved and successful they must be beautiful and to be beautiful they must be starving. Today women are obsessed with being a certain number size. They believe that in order to be considered beautiful they must be a certain number. But the problem is that culture dictates that you can never be thin enough and satisfied enough with your body. This has lead to the silent epidemic. Eating disorders.
We can’t talk about it. In college I helped put on a women’s retreat for a group of college women. We decided to do Stand Up for Your Sister. Each woman is handed a card and a pen. She fills out the card anonymously. Then all the cards are collected, shuffled and redistributed to the women. Each woman holds another women’s card. Then the leader reads off each item and if that box is checked on your card you stand. Every single woman stood for “I often don’t feel beautiful.” A large portion of the women stood for “I struggle with an eating disorder,” and an even larger portion of women stood for “I have skipped meals to lose weight.” It broke my heart.
I had known so many of these young women for years and I didn’t know that so many of us struggle with the same things and we struggle in silence thinking we are the only ones. We are not alone. If our group of 50 represents anything, it is that we all struggle with the importance that society places on our appearance. We don’t feel good about ourselves and we don’t feel safe enough to talk about it with other women. That has to change. We have to find a way to trust one another. To stop comparing and to start loving one another through the pain and sickness that we struggle with.
3. Violence has been normalized as a way of life for women.
We are told that violence against women is normal through the rhetoric, images, and media that are presented in our culture. We are taught that if a woman is attacked it is her fault for wearing the wrong clothing. We are taught that we should be afraid of men, because of what they will do to us. We are told,”Don’t go out at night.” And if you do then you’re asking for abuse.
In her book, Wolf cites a study that found that when men were asked what they were most afraid of from women, they responded they were afraid that women would laugh at them. But when women were asked the same question about men, they responded they were afraid men would kill them.
I have actively taken Krav-Maga (Israeli self defense) in order to be able to protect myself from the unseen violence. I live in a big city on my own and I don’t have a husband or boyfriend to “protect” me and my lonesomeness creates fear. But it shouldn’t, because the majority of rape, battery, and assault committed against women is done by a man that is either a relative or close friend. The fact that women are taught to rely on the protection of men creates a helplessness in women. As a woman you are not expected to be able to take care of yourself, but society then blames you if you are violated. You see the discrepancy. Men are allowed to participate in violence against women and in the name of “protection” for women. But women themselves are not taught that they have the ability to provide their own protection nor are men taught that violence against women is wrong.
Conclusion
There are many topics in “The Beauty Myth” that discuss how women are told through the beauty myth that they must not desire equality or basic human rights. Society as we know it would not could not survive the change if all women were to take up the mantel and demand better treatment, but it shouldn’t survive. We should cultivate a new culture that values women and sees their contribution as beneficial rather than a threat. If you want a book that will help to walk through one of the major feminist issues of our age, I highly recommend this one.
Citations
Wolf, N. (1991). The Beauty Myth. New York, NY: HarperCollins
MY TOP 3 FAVORITE IDEAS FROM THE BEAUTY MYTH BY NAOMI WOLF
Beauty is pain. From the time I was a small child I remember being taught this in a number of different ways. I remember being told that I had to wear tights and dress, but then not allowed to run and play like the boys because I would ruin my looks. I remember being forced to sleep in uncomfortable foam curlers so that my hair would have unnatural ringlets, even though they hurt my head, because it was pretty. As a woman, I have been taught to expect pain, violence, hunger, and illness if I want to succeed, but it doesn’t have to be this way and this manner of living should not be considered normal.
In her book “The Beauty Myth,” Naomi Wolf explores how beauty is used to control women and how it used to keep them in a lower social order so that the economic status quo is maintained. She works through several categories and reveals how women are continually oppressed through the use of this idea called beauty. The top three that stood out to me, were the workforce, hunger, and violence.
1. In the workforce, women are held to specific standards when it comes to dress and this devalues what they say because it is all about how they look. I love this point, because it reveals how our society thinks of women as a whole. We are not sentient beings that are to be valued for how we think and what we contribute to the workforce. Rather we are trophies to be admired and not just aesthetically admired, but sexually admired.
For example, female law students are taught that that in order to prevent a jury from being prejudiced against them they cannot wear pants, flats, or ponytails. They must always have make-up on. They must always be in a skirt and heals. They may never wear the same outfit twice with the same jury. Some trials last 9 weeks. That’s 40 outfits! Men may wear the same boring black suit every single day and never be questioned, but a woman may never wear a pantsuit because it gives the jury the impression that she is too aggressive and the lawyer could lose the case.
How terrible! The female lawyer is not persuasive because of what she says and how she presents her facts it is because she is wear heals and neutral tones. Men are taught that they can judge and admire or despise us based on what we wear, because a woman’s purpose is to entertain men’s visual fancies. They are not taught to appreciate us for our legitimate contribution to our careers.
2. Women are being taught that to be accepted, loved and successful they must be beautiful and to be beautiful they must be starving. Today women are obsessed with being a certain number size. They believe that in order to be considered beautiful they must be a certain number. But the problem is that culture dictates that you can never be thin enough and satisfied enough with your body. This has lead to the silent epidemic. Eating disorders.
We can’t talk about it. In college I helped put on a women’s retreat for a group of college women. We decided to do Stand Up for Your Sister. Each woman is handed a card and a pen. She fills out the card anonymously. Then all the cards are collected, shuffled and redistributed to the women. Each woman holds another women’s card. Then the leader reads off each item and if that box is checked on your card you stand. Every single woman stood for “I often don’t feel beautiful.” A large portion of the women stood for “I struggle with an eating disorder,” and an even larger portion of women stood for “I have skipped meals to lose weight.” It broke my heart.
I had known so many of these young women for years and I didn’t know that so many of us struggle with the same things and we struggle in silence thinking we are the only ones. We are not alone. If our group of 50 represents anything, it is that we all struggle with the importance that society places on our appearance. We don’t feel good about ourselves and we don’t feel safe enough to talk about it with other women. That has to change. We have to find a way to trust one another. To stop comparing and to start loving one another through the pain and sickness that we struggle with.
3. Violence has been normalized as a way of life for women.
We are told that violence against women is normal through the rhetoric, images, and media that are presented in our culture. We are taught that if a woman is attacked it is her fault for wearing the wrong clothing. We are taught that we should be afraid of men, because of what they will do to us. We are told,”Don’t go out at night.” And if you do then you’re asking for abuse.
In her book, Wolf cites a study that found that when men were asked what they were most afraid of from women, they responded they were afraid that women would laugh at them. But when women were asked the same question about men, they responded they were afraid men would kill them.
I have actively taken Krav-Maga (Israeli self defense) in order to be able to protect myself from the unseen violence. I live in a big city on my own and I don’t have a husband or boyfriend to “protect” me and my lonesomeness creates fear. But it shouldn’t, because the majority of rape, battery, and assault committed against women is done by a man that is either a relative or close friend. The fact that women are taught to rely on the protection of men creates a helplessness in women. As a woman you are not expected to be able to take care of yourself, but society then blames you if you are violated. You see the discrepancy. Men are allowed to participate in violence against women and in the name of “protection” for women. But women themselves are not taught that they have the ability to provide their own protection nor are men taught that violence against women is wrong.
Conclusion
There are many topics in “The Beauty Myth” that discuss how women are told through the beauty myth that they must not desire equality or basic human rights. Society as we know it would not could not survive the change if all women were to take up the mantel and demand better treatment, but it shouldn’t survive. We should cultivate a new culture that values women and sees their contribution as beneficial rather than a threat. If you want a book that will help to walk through one of the major feminist issues of our age, I highly recommend this one.
Citations
Wolf, N. (1991). The Beauty Myth. New York, NY: HarperCollins