From time to time, I will be blogging
about books relating to feminist themes. Some of my general thoughts on
feminism and the issue of violence directed at women are here.
Some of the statistics on eating
disorders included in the original version of this book were criticized as
being inaccurate. Wolfe has acknowledged the inaccuracies and the version of
the book that I read includes the corrected data.
Naomi Wolf is
an author and commentator. Over the years, she has weighed in on all sorts of
political and social issues. She is also a former adviser to President Bill
Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.
In this work,
Wolf builds a complex and nuanced argument, supported by many pages of data and
examples, as well as philosophical musings. First, she argues that modern
society has created a false image of feminine beauty. This image is
restrictive. Beauty is not only subjective, but the vast majority of men and
women view sensual beauty as a much larger spectrum than that which is being
fed to the public.
At one point,
in a quote that I find to very insightful, she writes about men in regards to
this point,
"Many, many men see this way too. A man who wants to define
himself as a real lover of women admires what shows of her past on a woman’s
face, before she ever saw him, and the adventures and stresses that her body
has undergone, the scars of trauma, the changes of childbirth, her
distinguishing characteristics, the light in her expression. The number of men
who already see in this way is far greater than the arbiters of mass culture
would lead us to believe, since the story they need to tell ends with the
opposite moral. The Big Lie is the notion that if a lie is big enough, people
will believe it. The idea that adult women, with their fully developed array of
sexual characteristics, are inadequate to stimulate and gratify heterosexual
male desire, and that “beauty” is what will complete them, is the beauty myth’s
Big Lie. All around us, men are contradicting it. The fact is that the myth’s
version of sexuality is by definition just not true: Most men who are at this
moment being aroused by women, flirting with them, in love with them, dreaming
about them, having crushes on them, or making love to them, are doing so to
women who look exactly like who they are. The myth stereotyped sexuality into
cartoons by representation”
Wolf argues that
women in particular and society as whole have been programed and thus have
become obsessed with this false image of beauty.
I find that
Wolf’s arguments on this matter are very convincing and I am in strong
agreement with her here.
The author’s
next contention is that this Beauty Myth, and society’s obsession with it, is extremely
detrimental and oppressive towards women. In chapter after chapter, Wolf lays
out a case of how women are harmed by this myth. Not only does it narrowly and
falsely define beauty and sensuality, but it forces women into a no win
situation as they attempt to adhere to this myth in a supposed attempt to reach
success in multiple facets of life. She explores its economic, legal, social,
physical, psychological and emotional (In the area of emotion, she argues that
men have been oppressed, too) effects upon women. Wolf gets into a lot of
detail here as she explains both the expected and the unexpected ways that this
phenomenon has been an encumbrance upon women.
Though I do
not agree with all her arguments, when it comes to the big picture, Wolf
presents a very convicting case here. The information that she provides is
intricate, and some of her philosophical musings are complex and difficult to
convey in a single blog post. In one example, she illustrates how the legal
system has allowed all sorts of employers to discriminate against women based
upon their appearance and presumed attractiveness. I have taken several
business law and human resource related classes, and I was already familiar with
some of the cases that are presented here. I agree the results were outrageous
and harmful to society.
Some of
Wolf’s final conclusions seem to go into shakier territory. Wolf envisions
nearly utopian benefits if society dispensed with these falsehoods and
discrimination. She contends that men’s emotional connection to women is being
fouled and corrupted by the myth. Thus, if men resisted the myth, women and the
men who love them would begin to drive revolutionary change,
"But with the apparition of numbers of men moving into
passionate, sexual love of real women, serious money and authority could defect
to join forces with the opposition. Such love would be a political upheaval
more radical than the Russian Revolution and more destabilizing to the balance
of world power than the end of the nuclear age. It would be the downfall of
civilization as we know it— that is, of male dominance; and for heterosexual
love, the beginning of the beginning."
In terms of
these ultimate conclusions, I think that sexism is very complicated. While a
more inclusive and less obsessive societal view of beauty and sensuality would
be very beneficial to men and women, I think that the barrier that Wolf sees
between the sexes in terms of heterosexual love is exaggerated. This ‘joining
of forces’ to overthrow male dominance seems farfetched. There are other factors aside from The Beauty
Myth driving sexism and misogyny that need to be addressed separately. I
believe that society addressing these issues and that positive change will
continue, but at an evolutionary, not revolutionary pace.
This book
contains a lot of ideas. There are other arguments that I disagree with. In
particular, I found Wolf’s comparison between Nazi medical experiments and the
modern cosmetic surgical industry to be untenable and ill-considered.
I think that it
is important to note that Wolf is not advocating an abolition of all efforts of
women to enhance their beauty and/or sensuality. She goes on to extoll the joys
found in the efforts that people take in making themselves attractive and
sensual. She writes,
“what I support in this book is a woman’s right to choose
what she wants to look like and what she wants to be, rather than obeying what
market forces and a multibillion-dollar advertising industry dictate"
And later,
“we have to separate from the myth what it has surrounded
and held hostage: female sexuality, bonding among women, visual enjoyment,
sensual pleasure in fabrics and shapes and colors— female fun, clean and dirty.
We can dissolve the myth and survive it with sex, love, attraction, and style
not only intact, but flourishing more vibrantly than before. I am not attacking
anything that makes women feel good; only what makes us feel bad in the first
place. We all like to be desirable and feel beautiful.”
Though The Beauty
Myth is more than twenty years old, I should note that it has been somewhat
updated by the more recent introduction included in my edition as well as by
Wolf’s 2011 essay, A Wrinkle in Time,
which is available all over the Internet. Though parts of the book still seem a
little dated, the bulk of it, as well as its main contentions, still seem to be
relevant.
Despite my
quibbles with some of her points, I find most of Wolf’s arguments moderate and
reasonable. As I outlined above, I am in agreement with her on the majority of
her points.
This book is
bursting with insights and important points. I have only scratched the surface
in terms of Wolf’s arguments, and the detail in which she makes them. This book
delves into the nuts and bolts of our culture and how we view and deal with
gender and sensuality. Thus, this is an important book for both women and men
to read.
