Product Description

In the struggle for women's equality, there is one subject still shrouded in silence - women's compulsive pursuit of beauty. The myth of female beauty challenges every woman, every day of her life. The author exposes the tyranny of the beauty myth through the ages and its oppressive function today, in the home and at work, in literature and the media, in relationships between men and women, between women and women. With examples, she confronts the beauty industry and its advertising and uncovers the reasons why women are consumed by this destructive obsession.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10563 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
Naomi Wolf is the author of The Beauty Myth, an international bestseller, and named one of the most significant books of the century by the New York Times. She lectures widely.

Customer Reviews

A real eye-opener
Think women are finally equal? Think feminism is passe? Think again. In The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf puts forward startling and controversial arguments to suggest that women are still, even now, obstructed and held back by society in a systematic and organised way. The key idea in this book is that as women fought for freedom and equality, and broke down so many barriers in the mid twentieth century, society responded by creating the Beauty Myth: an increasing obsession with beauty and appearance which consistenly hampers women from fulfilling their potential. The Beauty Myth, suggests Wolf, is the one single lasting inequality that holds back women today. This obsession with beauty arose massively in the last half of the century as a direct reaction and back-lash to the emancipation that women were finally achieving in other areas of their lives. In a enlightening and sometimes shocking read, Wolf answers questions like: why do women wear make-up? Why are so many women obsessed with their weight and constantly dieting? Why are there no greying, older women in respectable positions in the media? Why are women so afraid of ageing? Why, above all, are these preoccupations seen to be normal and correct, even obligatory to have the 'proper' experience of womanhood? The Beauty Myth diverts women's time, money, energy and intelligence into something that does not challenge the status quo. $20 billion a year is wasted on trying to achieve the impossible goal of 'beauty'. Women living in western society have an extra burden imposed on them that men do not have: they must be beautiful to succeed in work, love, sex, and life. The myth affects all aspects of a woman's life. It affects the way women are treated in work, it affects the way female sexuality is viewed, it affects young girls psychologically, it infuses our culture totally. Striving after the myth, a woman shows all the signs of being taken in by a cult religion. Under the myth, femaleness is inherantly wrong and flawed and must be continually corrected. The female body is seen as an ugly mistake. Alone, it is just not good enough and needs artificial methods to make it acceptable. The amazing thing is that this fact has not been realised by women in modern society who in every other way consider themselves free individuals. Reading this book may at last open our eyes. 'Men' in general are not to blame here, the myth debilitates them too. It surely must be true that if women, more than half of the population, are not free, then men are not really free also. They are shut out from having relationships with women as they really are. Wolf also points out that the myth may be starting to attach itself to men. It is in their interests to demolish it. This book was published in 1990, and perhaps some things have changed a decade on (however I doubt it - the ludicrous furore about Julian Roberts' armpits(?!), herion chic, the recent ad for eyeshadow "shout without opening your mouth"). I also think that Wolf does not always succeed in convincing the reader of her more controversial ideas; I could not always relate to some of the more extreme claims. However, I guarantee that if you are a woman there are parts in this book that are so blindingly true you will be almost shouting out agreement as you read. The book opens our eyes, it is a wake up call, reading it takes us out of our own culture to see its craziness from the outside. After reading this book I promise you will see western culture differently and hopefully you will be inspired to change things, even in your own life. I recommend this book to everyone, male or female. If you are a man, reading this book may shock you and make you see women differently. If you are a woman, this book will probably change your life.

Women - the answer to why you never quite succeed enough.
I loved this book. I completely recognise the world that Naomi examines as being where I live even though she is American and I am English. I already knew a lot of what she wrote (esp. about the diet cycle) but had felt that my feelings must be to do with excusing my failure to fit the mould - you know size 10 (US6), hoards of male admirers, job to die for, facial features just so, boob size just so, bottom size just so, the list is endless, etc. I am now confident that I am not a failure - far from it, I am succeeding at not being manipulated and bullied by the institutions and organisations that are ultimately only interested in making money out of people (mostly, but not only, women) by playing on artificially created insecurities.

This book should be a must read for all women and they should re-read it over the years. As you age it is more difficult to fit your body (and mind) into the beauty mould and the truth of the beauty myth becomes more apparent.

As a reasonably politically aware woman who is financially self supporting this book was fantastic cos it articulated so well the constant pressure on women that affects my life all the time. If you protest against this pressure you are labelled as a woman with a chip on her shoulder. This is not the case. There is a conspiracy - however inadvertent most of the conspirators are.

Great Idea for a Book
But it falls short.

I was very eager to buy this book, the contents and a brief scan through it would give it the appearence of a great read and insightful source of information on how beauty, particularly female beauty, has been mythologised and effects work, culture, religion and sex but the writing is like that of a columnist or a collection of magazine shorts, which is a real, real shame.

The problem I found was that you could agree with the essential premise and perspective under pinning the whole work, many of the examples and illustrative points are brilliant, if largely anecdotal or journalistic, but the writing style, seriously labouring some points and dragging them out to fit entire chapters when a few pages would have sufficed proved a real stumbling block for me when trying to finish it.

I had hoped for a book which would be largely like Simone de Beauvoir's classic The Second Sex which ranged across psychology, philosophy, religion and politics to describe the differentiated status of women in society and how it proves unfair and oppressive to women, and ultimately men too, but with a finer focus upon the topic of beauty and body image, however I hope without being unkind to Naomi Wolf this isnt it.

If it is pop feminism for a younger audience, particularly those troubled by their body image, then perhaps this is the read for you, if you want a more weighty feminist anthropology or psychology then perhaps look to another source.