Thursday, October 6, 2011

The Beauty Myth

The more legal and material hindrances women have broken through, the more strictly and heavily and cruelly images of female beauty have come to weigh upon us... [D]uring the past decade, women breached the power structure; meanwhile, eating disorders rose exponentially and cosmetic surgery  became the fastest-growing specialty... [P]ornography became the main media category, ahead of legitimate films and records combined, and thirty-three thousand American women told researchers that they would rather lose ten to fifteen pounds than achieve any other goal...More women have more money and power and scope and legal recognition than we have ever had before; but in terms of how we feel about ourselves physically, we may actually be worse off than our unliberated grandmothers.

- Naomi Wolf , The beauty Myth 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

A most unpleasant truth is in this simple statement - not what people WANT to hear maybe, but a message they NEED to hear.

desert demons said...

Hey anansi thanx for your visit. Sadly these 'inconvenient truths' are the sad revelations of the reality we live in.

The Sailor Taylor said...

As a Black woman, reading this made me a bit skeptical. I wonder WHICH women researchers interviewed because from my knowledge, and things I have read, Black women are less inclined to give into what society says is beautiful. In no way am I saying that all Black women are ignoring what the media says is acceptable, but I think more often than not, we do not care about the mainstream.. Most of the time.