Name: The Beauty Myth
Rating: 4.3 (57 reviews)
Author: Naomi Wolf

What’s in it for me? Understand the social construct called beauty.

Beauty, the poets tell us, is in the eye of the beholder. But have you ever stopped to consider this phrase? What is viewed as beautiful has changed throughout history, and it’s different in different societies, which suggests beauty really is judged based on norms and ideals.

Okay, so, big deal. That doesn’t really change anything, right?

Not so fast. The myth of beauty enforces normativity, especially for women: in our society, it’s a myth that perpetuates the subjugation of women to men. It drives women to purchase makeup and clothes, to undergo plastic surgery and even practice starvation. Let’s explore the history of the beauty myth and learn what a stronghold it still has on society today.

In these blinks, you’ll discover

that women’s joining the workforce enforced the beauty myth;
why the beauty myth functions like a cult; and
how the beauty myth helped create the income gap between men and women.

Current standards of beauty are a political means of controlling women and maintaining the patriarchy.

The women’s rights movement has made significant progress in the past few decades. But even though women have gained legal and reproductive rights, as well as more freedom to pursue higher education and enter previously male-dominated professions, there has also been some backlash.

As women have made legal and economic strides over the past 50 years, we’ve also seen an increase in detrimental portrayals of female beauty. These images are being used with growing efficiency to work against the progress women have made, creating what is known as a beauty myth.

The beauty myth claims that there is an elusive quality called “beauty” – a quality that women should do everything in their power to pursue, achieve and maintain.

The myth enforces certain views. For instance, that beauty is an inherently good and beneficial quality and that, without it, women are worthless and invisible.

Consider women who are at the top of their professions. Even with all their achievements and success, the pressure to look good doesn’t cease. If anything, women with more power and status are scrutinized more and the pressure to look beautiful only gets worse.

The beauty myth is the final mechanism of cultural ideology with the power to control women, women who have otherwise been liberated to freely pursue their desires.

Before the Industrial Revolution, the social value of women was measured largely by their work within the domestic sphere. Their lives took shape around attributes like work aptitude, physical strength and fertility – not beauty.

With industrialization came increasing freedom for women. To maintain the patriarchy, a new, subtler and more deceptive method for undermining women’s freedom and power was needed.

This is what the beauty myth does: it keeps women trapped, self-destructively competing with themselves and each other. And since images and standards of beauty change, the identity of women is constantly vulnerable and in need of external validation.

In the next blink, we’ll see how this myth plays out in the workplace.

The workplace nurtures and sustains the beauty myth.

After World War II, only 32.8 percent of US women were employed. By 1984, the percentage had jumped to 53.4, an increase that threatened the male-dominated power structures. To the patriarchy, women constituted a huge and destabilizing group demanding equal opportunities.

To counteract this influx, a discriminatory system came into existence, singling out appearance as a woman’s most desirable trait.

The beauty myth has dire consequences for women – physically, mentally and economically.

Perhaps you’re wondering just how harmful the beauty myth can be. For women, it can have devastating effects. For the oppressors, however, it can bring great benefits.

In the workplace, the beauty myth does more than perpetuate discrimination against women based on appearance; it also reinforces a double standard, ensuring that women are underpaid and that men make the big money.

Kernaussagen in The Beauty Myth

Worum geht es in The Beauty Myth?

The Beauty Myth (1991) will help you understand the anxiety that surrounds women, and the cult of beauty that dominates our society today. It identifies the patriarchal and economic forces that shape the unfair expectations and norms that women face. Learn how we can be better equipped to build a less biased future.