The Beauty Myth
"The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women," written by Naomi Wolf and published in 1991, critiques the societal standards of beauty and the pressures they impose on women. Wolf argues that the beauty industry fosters competition among women, diverting attention from critical social issues such as childcare, reproductive rights, and workplace equality. She posits that these beauty ideals are utilized as a means to undermine women's solidarity and collective action. The book emphasizes the importance of women recognizing their shared struggles and working together to challenge and change the status quo. Wolf defines feminism as the awareness and active resistance against subjugation, suggesting that the potential for significant societal change lies in women's collective agency. The book has been noted for its significant cultural impact, being recognized as one of the most important works of the twentieth century, alongside generating extensive discussion and backlash related to its themes. Overall, "The Beauty Myth" remains a pivotal text in feminist discourse, continuing to inspire conversations about beauty standards and women's rights in contemporary society.
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The Beauty Myth
Identification International best-selling feminist book
Author Naomi Wolf (1962- )
Date Published in 1991
Wolf’s attack on advertising and the media in her first, controversial book was used by feminists to motivate women to unite and was castigated by critics as inaccurate, historically incorrect, and paranoid.
Naomi Wolf graduated from Yale University in 1984 and received a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. She wrote for such publications as The New Republic, Glamour, Ms., Esquire, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post but is perhaps best known for her first book, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women, published in 1991.
In The Beauty Myth, Wolf castigated beauty advertising, which emphasizes the need for every woman to use products to ensure that she is a “beauty.” More important, she pointed out that the quest for beauty pits women against each other and that this culture of divisiveness prevents them from uniting to fight for their real needs: child-care programs, effective antidiscrimination laws, parental leave, reproductive choice, fair compensation, and genuine penalties against sexual violence. According to Wolf, these changes can come not from men or the media but from women recognizing and working for their common needs.
In a review of the 1990’s, Wolf defined feminism as “women’s ability to think about their subjugated role in history, and then to do something about it.” She said that the twenty-first century would see the End of Inequality (her caps) only if women decide to change it. As a group, women can lose their future, she warned, because women have been trained to see themselves as having no claim upon their history. Writing in The New York Times Magazine on May 16, 1999, Wolf noted many new landmarks for women but warned that women were at a turning point as the decade ended. The 1990’s made feminism mainstream, she said, but she warned that at the beginning of a new century it could either crest further or recede as women once again fail to do what they must.
Impact
During the 1990’s, Wolf followed The Beauty Myth with Fire with Fire: The New Female Power and How to Use It (1993) and Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood (1997). No subsequent work, however, had the impact of The Beauty Myth, which The New York Times called one of the seventy most significant books of the twentieth century; HarperCollins published a tenth anniversary commemorative edition in 2002. The original was an international best seller, and its impact may be best judged by the backlash (defined in a book of that name by Susan Faludi, published the same year) it produced. Its title and theme have become synonymous with continued work by feminists against the political system and the culture that they claim uses women’s insecurities to prevent them as individuals and as a group from realizing their full potential.
Bibliography
Faludi, Susan. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women. New York: Crown, 1991.
Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. New York: HarperPerennial, 2002.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Fire with Fire: The New Female Power and How to Use It. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1993.