Criticism of The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf

Once published, The Beauty Myth By Naomi Wolf quickly became a bestseller and elicited mixed reactions from the readership and the media. From a feminist angle, Wolf mainly received acclaim for her book and hypothesis. The book has been praised by the likes of Germaine Greer , Fay Weldon and Betty Friedan . The American newspaper The New York Times called it one of the most important works of the twentieth century. 

Several thinkersbelieve that Wolf is grossly exaggerating the numbers on anorexia . Social critic Camille Paglia called Wolf's historical research and analysis 'flawed'.

In Opzij , Anja Meulenbelt wrote that Wolf's argument was by no means new, but that it was simply packaged differently, or in a more fashionable way. A journalist who reported about this in the NRC in 1994 pointed out that Meulenbelt accuses the attractive Wolf of personally benefiting from the Image Myth.

In Who Stole Feminism? (1994) Christina Hoff Sommers criticized Wolf for publishing the claim that 150,000 women are dying each year from anorexia in the United States, arguing that the true figure is probably between 100 and 400 per year. 4

Similarly, a 2004 article compared Wolf's eating disorder statistics with statistics from peer-reviewed epidemiological studies and concluded that "on average, an anorexia statistic in any edition of The Myth of Beauty would have to be divided by eight to get closer to the real statistic. ' Schoemaker estimated that there are approximately 525 deaths annually from anorexia, 286 times less than in statistics Wolf.

The Beauty Myth Explained Simply

The core of Wolf's argument in The Beauty Myth is that women increasingly have socio-economic opportunities and social status, but also suffer from pressure to conform to unrealistic beauty ideals. These ideals, which have arisen and are maintained by the commercial mass media, lead to unhealthy behavior by women, preoccupation with appearance by both sexes and hinders the social acceptance of women.

Wolf states in her introduction to The Beauty Myth that in recent decades women have overcome many social, economic and legal hurdles, but at the same time suffer from a limiting, burdensome and cruel image of female beauty. While women were increasingly able to occupy positions of power, eating disorders increased dramatically and cosmetic surgery became the fastest growing medical specialty. Pornographybecame the leading category in the mass media and 33,000 American women said in a survey that they would rather lose a few pounds than achieve any other goal in their lives. More women than ever have more power and more money to spend and their rights are better safeguarded than ever, but in terms of self-esteem , about their own bodies, they may be worse off than their grandmothers in pre- feminism times .

Wolf also argues that the ideal of beauty created by the media is a kind of belief that perpetuates male dominance. Few women can naturally fulfill the ideal, the rest would be doomed to feel unhappy and at the same time groggy buy products that promise beauty.

See extended summary of The Beauty Myth and Criticism of The Beauty Myth.

great summary of The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf

The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf - summary part 1

In her book "The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women" Naomi Wolf radically criticizes the glamor, beauty and thinness industries. It claims the psychological and physical oppression of women through these industries, created by economic and political interests.

According to Wolf, despite the successes of feminist uprisings from the 1970s that liberated women in public space and allowed them economic success and a sense of personal liberation, it is clear that within content they still feel bad and continue to think of themselves as unsuccessful - no matter how strong and successful the woman is. She will always burden herself with a feeling of self-inferiority that persists despite seeming successes. 

Wolf suggests the concept of the "beauty myth" that gendered the woman in physical terms has taken the place of the term "woman of valor" who is a housewife in the concept of social supervision, therefore, more and more women in the modern age are preoccupied with external apperance and it becomes the main factor guiding them.

According to Wolf, beauty, which varies from society to society, has become universal and symbolizes fertility and strength - a focus for the pursuit of strong men seeking a beautiful woman, and a focus for the whims of women in general towards beauty. Indeed, although women are financially successful and appearing in public space more and more, there are more and more cases of underweight, lack of self-esteem and fears related to beauty - irrational fears created mainly due to politics and society and not for real reasons.

According to Wolf, the myth of beauty is an order that dictates behavior and not appearance: above all, the myth of beauty determines the urgency and duty to base the identity and value of women on their beauty. The beauty myth is just one of several social fictions that emerged after the 1930s. Women learned to think of beauty in economic terms in the markets of the bourgeois marriage of the 19th century. These fictions dictated to women what they should look like and they dictate time-consuming and thought-provoking behavior (grooming, thinness, investing in appearance, and more).

The myth of beauty in its modern form became stronger after the Industrial Revolution, with the shift from the family work sphere to separate work and home spheres. At the same time as women gradually encountered a more egalitarian attitude, female consciousness took over a reality that used the concepts of "beauty." Because women have become stronger materially, the best way to weaken them is psychologically by setting beauty standards. After the rebirth of feminism in the early 1970s, Western women acquired legal rights, acquired higher education and penetrated the circle of trade and the liberal professions. However, women do not feel as free as they would like to feel. The source of their distress is related to the relationship between the liberation of women and female beauty. The "myth of beauty" according to Wolf is a violent counter-reaction to feminism, which uses images of female beauty as a political weapon against the advancement of women. Among other things, the positioning of feminists as "ugly" and "masculine" has developed a new arena of confrontation against radical feminism.

The endless beauty work has taken the place of housework that was once the familiar and well-known domain of women. Once that happened, millions of images of the current beauty ideal were circulated. The diet, cosmetics, cosmetic surgery and pornography industries have based their power on capital generated from unconscious anxieties of women. This, through their influence on the culture of the masses. The economic needs strive to ignore the reality of "real women" and reduce the meaning of femininity to formulaic images of beauty.

Continue to part 2 of the summary

Criticism of The Beauty Myth

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