Jill L. naomi wolf, the beauty myth, 120-125

Jillian Limone
October 2, 2007
Gender and Popular Culture: section 5
Naomi Wolf. The Beauty Myth. 120-125

Description:
• As society focuses more on physical appearance, bodies, faces, hair and clothes, women feel their freedoms poisoned by self-hatred and the "terror of aging." (120)
Analysis:
• As women become more successful, the crueler and more demeaning images of female beauty arise in our society. (120)
• Under women's success is a climate of confusion, cynicism and exhaustion. (120)
• Studies show that women have been becoming more powerful and independent; however eating disorders rose as well as cosmetic surgery being one of the top medical procedures. (120)
• Women begin to worry too much about losing a few pounds rather then achieving their life long dreams.
• Our society is using images of female beauty as a political as well as a psychological weapon to hinder women's liberation- also known as the beauty myth. (120)
• Women fall under social control.
• Woman want "beauty" and men want women who have that "beauty." (121)
• The beauty myth "prescribes behavior" and is composed of "emotional distance, politics, finance and sexual repression." (122)
• The beauty myth is about institutional power as well as male power. (122)

Vision:
• Society must not allow the contemporary economy to depend on the representation of women through the beauty myth. (124)
Strategy:
• Women can not allow themselves to lose self-confidence from contemporary culture's power of their "beauty."