Customer Reviews

The Beauty Myth: How Images of Female Beauty Are Used Against Women

5 star:		(32)
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3 star:		(7)
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1 star:		(15)

 

 

In The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf argues that our culture's images of beauty -- found on television and in advertisements, women's magazines, and pornography -- are detrimental to women, as well as to the men who love them. She demonstrates that the concept of "beauty" is a weapon used to make women feel badly about themselves; after all, no one can live up to the ideal. Wolf DOES agree that beauty plays a legitimate role in our lives and in our attractions to one another. The problem, she says, is when beauty is defined as thinness, pertness, and youthfulness taken to extremes -- extremes that are literally unattainable for healthy women. And I agree.

Wolf's book explores 6 areas of life in which problems result from the beauty myth. Each has its own chapter that can be read on its own and still make perfect sense. I suggest starting with whichever interests you the most. They are as follows:

* WORK. Here, the author details the way the concept of "beauty" can be used to discriminate against women in the workforce. If women are too pretty, we're not taken seriously; if women aren't pretty enough, we can legally be fired for their perceived "homeliness." Then again, if we're too pretty, it's our own fault when they're sexually harassed; if we're not pretty enough, people doubt men would have actually harassed them. The author offers a dizzying list of legal cases lost by women which demonstrate the extent of this catch-22 -- compelling stuff.

* CULTURE. This focuses on the role of women's magazines (the sole arbiter of women's culture) in shaping our lives, by selling us on the need for beauty products by making us feel bad about themselves. It also notes that advertisers pressure the magazines into this, because only if women feel terrible about themselves will high-income women spend a quarter (yes, a quarter) of their each paycheck on beauty products.

* RELIGION. Convincingly argues that the quest for thinness has replaced the quest for moral virtue and heavenly salvation, and shows how this quest has the same effects that religion once did -- of keeping women submissive and preoccupied.

* SEX. Demonstrates that the beauty myth actually supresses female sexuality by making many women too self-conscious to engage in sex freely and comfortably, and moreover, that excessive dieting leads to a diminished sex drive. It also argues that the beauty myth hurts men by making them unaware of what real women look like, and by giving them the role of "appraiser of beauty" instead of the role of "partner" -- further impacting sexual relations.

* HUNGER. The beauty myth convinces women to "willingly" go hungry, to eat fewer calories per day than famine victims in third-world countries, which results in ironic weight gain and/or in eating disorders (compulsive eating, anorexia, and bulemia). Includes a compelling account of the author's own battle with anorexia.

* VIOLENCE. This is not about domestic violence, but rather the self-inflicted violence of cosmetic surgery, which is so painful and damaging to the body. Interesting comparisons with Victorian sexual surgery and with potentially deadly experimental medical research (which is unethical). The author questions why so many women are willing to risk diminished erotic responses and even death in order to be made thin or small-nosed or large-breasted or whatever. Her conclusion is that culture implies that women are better off dead than old or ugly-looking, making it a reasonable risk.

In conclusion, this is a very strong, compelling book. At times, some of what Wolf says is a bit hard to swallow -- but read as a whole, it presents a solid argument about the sickness of our society today. Men, read it for your wives; parents, read it for your daughters; and ladies, read it for yourself.

Highly recommended.

I have read many books on feminism over the past few years, and have read books that dispute some of the statistics in this book. Nonetheless, it is a good read, because it makes you aware of things that are going on in the lives of young women.

Whatever the numbers, the fact remains that young women are slowly killing and disfiguring themselves in the name of that ever-unattainable, ever-subjective idea, "beauty." Is it really significant is five women a year die of bulimia or anorexia or if it's closer to five hundred? The fact remains that something is seriously wrong with these girls to make them think that they have no other way of being socially accepted. Does it matter how much the cosmetic surgery industry really grosses annually? After all, ten years or so after this book is written, we have shows on prime-time television like "Extreme Makeover," in which someone contacts the show and tells them how horrible they feel about themselves because of a physical flaw--a nose that is too big, eyes that are too wide-spaced--and the show promptly signs them up to be hacked away at, made into a modern-day Galatea, for the viewing pleasure of America. If you have watched this show, you also know exactly what Wolf is trying to convey in her chapter on Violence. She states that women are always told that they can look better in some way...and sure enough, once they get into the doctor's office, suddenly the nose is not the only problem anymore. Liposuction, [body part] job...sign me up. In watching another special on cosmetic surgery on MTV not long ago, two women were portrayed whose highest goal was to be--of all things for young women today to desire--[Magazine] bunnies. They went in for things like a nose job and a [body part]job, and suddenly you saw the doctor pointing out all the other things "wrong" with them. The two relatively thin (and when I say "relatively," I mean they were probably underweight, but not as skinny as anorexic-looking models) girls were told that they should do something about invisible "saddlebags" and also maybe should consider doing something about the excess fat on their thighs--again, barely visible to the naked eye.

Wolf claims all this is political--a move to keep women down. And I'm not sure if I completely buy into the fact that it is all a political move to do just that, but I certainly realize that there is a definite cause for concern. If even one girl binges and purges, it's too many...and the fact remains that models are, in fact, horribly underweight, and then they have their photos retouched and airbrushed to make them look even skinnier. Women cannot compete with that which does not exist.

This book is definitely a good buy--it's easy reading and thought-provoking. I would recommend it to anyone interested in women's studies...and I would also recommend it to any woman, especially one who plans on having children, because it is so important to break this cycle of unattainable expectations.

Interesting to me that the male reviewers seemed to uniformly hate this book! Settle down, guys--we're not all going to stop shaving and exercising, and if you don't have Paris Hilton panting over you, believe me, it's NOT because of anything Naomi Wolf said!

Whatever I may think of the author and her philosophy, as a rule I like a book that makes me see things in ways I hadn't before. This was one of those books. I don't agree with everything the author writes, but after borrowing it from the library, I had to buy it for myself so I could write in the margins about all the "a-ha!" moments it prompted. Sadly for those who like black and white, beauty, like most things, is on a continuum. People cite Etcoff's "Survival of the Prettiest" in opposition to this book, but if the premises of "Prettiest" were completely true, then after thousands upon thousands of years of evolution, why aren't we all collectively lovely? Why aren't the women who have the most offspring (ie, the fittest) also the Cindy Crawford clones? One of my former evolution professors, David Wilson, just published a study showing that people who shared common goals and interests rated each other as more attractive than they rated strangers.

I'm short, overweight, and past my prime in years, but I'm evolutionarily fitter than average (3 children), and have a strong husband who is a good provider (the biologically desired currency for males), and he even loves me!--from where I stand, it looks like most women can safely drop a lot of their beauty obsession, and I think Wolf says a lot that would encourage us to.

In the Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf (NW) mounts a stunning array of evidence to establish a surprisingly basic thesis:

(*) That the media/advertisers/businesses use beauty as a standard standard that is applied solely to women

(*) That this standard is then used in the workforce, and is the basis for hiring, firing, promotion, denial of promotion, sexual harassment, denial of charges of sexual harassment, etc.

(*) That preoccupation with a media-imposed artificially-high and artificially-maintained standard of beauty keeps women preoccupied with things that are irrelevant to their jobs, skills, education, hard work, etc.

(*) That in order to keep their jobs, advance professionally, and maintain a romantic relationship, women have to spend large sums of money, plenty of time, and pay a lot of attention to their looks -- in order to maintain the kind of look they see in magazines and advertisements, and which seems to be expected of them.

NW makes many additional claims, and I, or any reader, for that matter, may chose to disagree with them. But the book is fascinating in the statistics and stories and facts it compiles. I found the book valueable if for no other reason than that it forced me to consider why beauty is applied only or mainly to women, and why it seems to be applied in areas to where it is irrelevant: Why should a female news reporter be expected to look like an anorexic fashion model? Why are her male colleagues judged by completely other standards?

In establishing her case, NW does a superb job. An astonishing job. Sometimes, she does too good a job, in that the book seems to fire in too many directions, some of which are not essential to her main thesis. For example, the book gives off a distinct foul odour of religion-bashing, which is not really necessary for the central theses the author makes. I thought it was a low point of the book, where NW "explains" the rationale behind various religious practices and then relates these to discrimination against women. There is no religion that is THAT clear about the rationale behind its practices: Claims such as "Jews do X because of Y" and "Catholics do Z because of T" are almost always bound to be gross over-simplifications of religious practices and beliefs. A book on the myth of beauty is the wrong place, in my opinion, for a Reader's Digest guide to world religions, and religion-bashing does not serve the author's purpose. On the contrary, most religious leaders today would otherwise agree with NW wholeheartedly that for whatever social/economic reasons, female beauty has been used, abused, and made a tool that has de-facto enslaved the hearts, minds and bodies of women.

NW has been generous enough, in the spirit of Betty Fridan's Feminine Mystique (which seems to serve as an inspiration for this book), to point out the toll that the [Feminine] Beauty Myth has taken on men as well: That genuine relationships are possible only when couples see each other as they are, and for what they are.

All in all, this is a good book, and one doesn't have to agree with each and every point in order to enjoy reading it. Get it, read it, and make up your own mind.

The cover quote calls this a must-read for all women. I would include men in that, as well. Or, at least all men who care about gaining greater understanding of women. I found that Wolf gets a bit heavy-handed at times, especially toward the beginning of the book, but she more than makes up for it with compelling arguments and plenty of supporting evidence. She opened my eyes to the reality of the ubiquitous, yet almost invisible, beauty myth, and I have been able to see many more examples on my own since reading the book. I feel the urge to give a copy to every woman I see who appears on the verge of collapse from self-starvation, or who seems ashamed of her natural self, unable to face the world without a mask of makeup.

Naomi Wolf has written a passionate, involved book, that analyses the 'Beauty Myth' from a perspective that is first a woman's, and second a sociologist. While parts of this book are a bit extreme and political, on the whole it provides a new framework for thought, and many fascinating angles to consider in any discussion of beauty, culture or women's media.

It is ironic that some of the criticism this book has received in these reviews ('Let her be ugly, or even average before she writes a book' , 'the way she throws her beautiful hair around') only goes to prove much of what Ms Wolf says - that her views as an author and a human being must be so inseperable from her looks, and that there is some quality of 'ugliness' that is absolute and which women should constantly strive to get out of.

Feeling attractive is certainly every woman's right, but it is a feeling, not an absolute state. Anyone who has travelled out of America, and experienced diverse cultures, will testify to this.

This book was an enlightening look into our society's expectations of beauty and the ideals that are placed on women. Wolf covers the exploitation and idealization of beauty at every opportunity to demonstrate how this detracts from women as human beings and objectifies them within a social hierarchy. Though some of her conclusions may seem far-fetched and unsupported, many women can understand the trappings of attempting to fit in and will find Wolf's writings particularly meaningful. As a young girl, for instance I often felt depressed and dejected because I did not exemplify our culture's standards of beauty. Bombarded by magazines and movies showcasing rail-thin models with ridiculously over-exaggerated features, I judged myself harshly- one reason why my self-esteem plummeted during my teenage years. Perhaps if I had read this book earlier I might have been spared years of discontent.

The Beauty Myth helped me to realize the fallacy in this desire to fit within this pre-arranged standard, and led me instead to focus on my own sense of beauty- a keen intelligence, understanding, and strength of will. This is perhaps the most redeeming quality of her writing: Wolf has an uncanny ability to connect to other women and promote an image of self-acceptance, beyond the cliché stereotypes that control beauty.

Wolf covers everything from cosmetic surgery to religion with adept poise, and asks us why we are so inclined to judge our manner of appearance as critical to ourselves. Though I disagree with some of her primary conclusions, of beauty being utilized as a form of subjugation against women and so forth (these ideals seem intrinsic to our culture of "sex sells" and are not necessarily related to patriarchal tendencies), I do agree that many of the unrealistic standards of beauty in our country place women at a disadvantage because they draw our attention to exterior features rather than more important aspects- our mind and character.

I must admit that much of Naomi Wolf's conclusions are based on her perception, filtered through her feminist positions and observations on a personal and social level which probably don't represent the whole. I give it four stars instead of five because, even though the writing is superb and many of her ideas on the mark, She doesn't back up her conclusions with factual information or evidence. The suggestion that men specifically use beauty as a means to control women seems a bit ridiculous and over-inflated. This is America, after all- and women have more opportunities than ever before.

Overall, this book is a remarkable read for those interested in the social perception of women or women's studies.

I am always excited to read very different and original points of view, whether I agree or not, and this book is definitely one of them. Anyone who asks questions that have not been asked before and is willing to talk about things that make people nervous, angry, and scared have gained my respect. Does Naoimi Wolf have all the answers? No, and who cares? This is the kind of book that makes you think and consider. You do not have to adopt her veiwpoint to benefit from reading this fascinating and controversial book. Come up with your own conclusions! All the greatest books make you do that.

I first read this book years ago back in college during the midst of my feminist study phase. What this book has in information, it also lacks tremendously in formulating a resolution. Although a lot of her facts stated in the book can be categorized as a bit farfetched in leaping to conclusions with a lack of control in her research, it does provide substantial information on the influence of the media and how the status quo goes on about controlling women.

I do appreciate her references to Betty Friedan's "Feminine mystic", (a much more accomplished and important work), and I do agree with her view on the creation of the physical awareness on women after WWII, especially when females realized that they could work for themselves while their hubbies were away fighting a war. It was during this time, that the media saturated the airwaves with the creation of the stay-at-home mom as more women began working. The popularity of the television only heightened the media influence on society as a powerful tool to mislead people into insecurities and fears to create more consumption on products that would inherently make people feel better about themselves.

As expected, the majority of this book focuses on eating disorders and plastic surgery that is so common in western culture. I also appreciated her comment on how the media are now exposing men into similar physical abuse as can be seen by the recent exploits of the metrosexual male, but I was rather angry toward her conclusion, toward which she devoted just a few pages. In her conclusion, she states that no male - not even one who is concerned about media and corporate mis-portrayal of the ideal female - can be involved in solving this problem. It is up to the women and women alone. Furthermore, she develops no resolution or even a hint of an idea to pursue in order crack that self-image, which she calls the iron-maiden.

Naomi Wolf clearly wrote this book to create a buzz, which it definitely does, even if it does lack a resolution and a clear concise view on how to tackle this problem. More than anything, this book does inform about the past and the present state of the women movement. It may cause some anger for those who attempt to read this book but it's important nonetheless to create awareness on the media power of social repression.

Naomi Wolf hits the nail square on the head with her analysis of the beauty myth and has put a name on my past feelings of discomfort when looking at a beauty ads. Since reading this book, I have felt a new confidence in myself awakening which is not dependent on comparison with unreal images for nourishment. Wolf's acknowledgement that the beauty myth also damages men and their relationships with women is also an important step in overcoming this unecessary wedge which has been driven between the sexes. My simple advice: Read this book.