Has anyone read the Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf?

Question

i'm still reading it, its taking me forever, what do you think? i'd like someone to discuss the book with

Answer 1

hey - I had to refresh my memory a little on this book as it's been several years since I read it.

Without reading the amazon reviews for a refresher course, what I remembered immediately was the controversy when it first came out. You see, Naomi Wolf had written this breakout pop-culture feminist polemic on women's self-empowerment and how the beauty culture basically causes us to doubt ourselves and undermine our own health - and then she'd go out and give these interviews about the books looking like a million bucks with flawless hair and perfect makeup. So the big argument wasn't are her points valid - it was basically - why isn't she putting her money where her mouth is?

I think that obscured the issue, though. The points she makes in the book are extremely valid and it was important that she brought these views out of the fringe academic/feminist lit that no one really reads and wrote an accesible best-seller that could resonate with everyone. Looking back on the reviews, what jumped out at me was the realization that she analyses how the beauty myth cuts both ways in the workplace - in other words, you are discriminated against if you're NOT pretty AND if you are. I have absolutely found that to be true and, further, that often it comes from women as well as men - buying into our own victimization, as it were.

She makes such important points, and yet we look at celebrity culture today and we see the glorification of people like Paris Hilton, who is 100% image and no substance at all. Alot of the young girls I work with adore her and try to emulate her, which makes me very sad. She makes Barbie look like a positive role model.

so yes, I think the book is important. I remember not liking it when I read it, but I was in college and thus very contemptous of anything that I perceived as being simplified (which it is to a certain extent.) I was also annoyed because she was being hero-worshipped on campuses and I got into a scrap about it with my women's studies lit teacher at the time. (ah, lalabee. Can't learn to keep her mouth shut.)

Since then I've read "promiscuities" by naomi wolf, which I thought was well-researched and valid.