Paste your eThe novel The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf focuses highly on feminism in today’s times. Throughout the novel the author describes different situations in which so many women are stereotypically looked upon. Many women think that the real meaning of beauty is what is shown on television. Many women disregard their opinions and instead mold it into the views of others. The author argues that some women are being victims by; work, media, religion, sex, violence, and hunger. Beauty was once ago seen as a respected value for women to have but it has been socially changed into something more mainstream. It is now in some women’s minds that beauty is achieved basically by getting noticed. The author’s goal was to create this book to provide an overall proposal on how to possibly end this scheme and to bring out the views.
The subject of this book is about women and how they are depicted according to society’s views. “Women have face-lifts in a society in which women without them appear to vanish from sight” (Wolf, 8). Naomi wanted her audience to see how women are victimized by men, social media and other powers that have stimulated the supposed idea of women’s identity. “Pain is real when you get other people to believe in it. If no one believes in it but you, your pain is madness or hysteria” (Wolf, 254). Her purpose was to make the people see and be aware of the unfair, harsh, treatment women go through when it comes to their appearances, actions, and behaviors in order to show that women are unable to do what they want, how they want to. “No matter what a woman’s appearance may be, it will be used to undermine what she is saying and taken to individualize- as her personal problem- observations she makes about the beauty myth in society” (Wolf, 11). “Culture stereotypes women to fit the myth by flattening the feminine into beauty-without-intelligence or intelligence-without-beauty; women are allowed a mind or a body but not both”(Wolf, 62). This quote ties in with the author’s argument of how women are viewed by society. This is one of the most noticeable mistakes of femininity. Woman can either have the smarts, or looks according to society, but never both qualities. No matter how hard they try to blend in with the “supposed” regulations of looks, it will never be enough. Social media has corrupted most men’s view of what he wants out of a woman. In fact, it’s not their view at all anymore, it is the view advertisers want all men to have.
Throughout the novel, Naomi Wolf uses different devices to support her ideas and facts about women’s role in society. The devices are used to have an effect on the reader. The first device is called Logos. The author use Logos to prove a logical view of how to change society’s view on the right treatment of women. She offers wise suggestions which are possible to accomplish. “When asked, ‘what should be done?’ I’ve said that it is the readers themselves who will write the final chapter of The Beauty Myth” (Wolf, 6). In The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf gives statistics to shed some light on the idea of beauty among women in society. For example, “Smoking is on the decline in all groups but young women; 39% of women who smoke do it to maintain their weight…” This technique was effective because it demonstrates the effect beauty has on women. It show that even if a women knows it’s harmful, she will still continue to smoke to look beautiful. Another example of logos is “Thirty-one percent of nine-year-olds thought they were too fat, and 81 percent of the ten-year-olds were dieters.” (Wolf 215). Naomi Wolf uses these shocking facts to show the importance of beauty to women of all ages, and how sad and sick this matter is.
The second device is called Pathos. The author uses this device to connect with her audience on personal levels, by presenting real life examples of episodes women have had and how they’ve had to deal with all sorts of harsh behavior towards them. “In Hopkins v. Price-Waterhouse, Ms. Hopkins was denied a partnership because she needed to learn to walk more femininely, talk more femininely, dress more femininely, and wear makeup. Maybe she didn’t deserve a partnership? She brought in the most business of any employee.”(Wolf 39). In 1986 a woman named Mechelle Vinson lost a case that was for sexual harassment. “Vinson was young and ‘beautiful’ and carefully dressed. The district court ruled that her appearance counted against her. Her provocative dress could be heard to decide whether her harassment was welcome.”(Wolf 38). Wolf discusses the effect of harsh behavior in the workplace. A woman’s beauty or lack of beauty can be used against her. Wolf compares restricting standards of beauty against women as “an Iron Maiden”. She uses this as an effective way to appeal to her audience emotions by showing the medieval torture device which immobilize victims who either died of starvation or from the spikes embedded in the interior. “In 1982, an Auburn University study found that 25 percent of undergraduate women have had at least one encounter of rape; 93 percent of those were by acquaintances” (Wolf, 166). Naomi Wolf uses facts to make the reader think and process what they just read. She uses it to set in how heavy the reality of this situation is. “Glamorous rape scenes obviously eroticize the sex war.” “..By casting sex as locked in a chastity belt to which beauty is the only key.” This is an effective way of pathos because Naomi appeals to the reader’s empathy with this quote; to show the way sex is used against women and has for a very long time. Wolf’s use of imagery educates the audience, but still kept the reading personal. “The woman’s face looks as if she has been beaten across the zygomatic ridge with an iron pipe. Her eyes are blackened. The skin of the woman’s hips is a blanket of bruises.” This is used by Naomi to bring out a more emotional effect. She could have gave just the facts but chooses to say it with emotion and make her readers feel that emotion. By using satire the reading is easier to relate to considering she is using a few personal experiences. A sarcastic or annoyed tone is set, because she does not agree with the ways females treat themselves and are treated. Her sarcastic tone throughout the chapters keeps her female audience questioning their daily routine and judgmental ways.
The Beauty Myth author showed bias against men as seen in the fact that she spent most of the novel discussing how beauty is used as currency in our society, with men judging women. While in North America culture, it is the women who is made to feel in competition with other females. In other countries like Nigeria, male beauty is obsessed over. “Among the Nigerian Wodaabes, the women hold economic power and the tribe is obsessed with male beauty; Wodaabe men spend hours together in elaborate makeup sessions, and compete-provocatively painted and dressed, with swaying hips, and seductive expressions-in beauty contests judged by women.” (Wolf 13). Not only does a social construct set standards for how women should act and should look like, but it applies for men as well. Another way Naomi Wolf showed bias against men is when she discussed eating disorder with women. “If we take the high end of the figures, it means that of ten young American women in college, two will be anorexic and six will be bulimic; only two will be well. The norm, then, for young, middle-class American women, is to be a sufferer from some form of the eating disease.”(Wolf 182). Eating disorder is a real, serious disorder that affect men, too. In fact the author goes on to state that there is a male beauty myth, which has emerged in the last ten years. She says men’s cosmetic surgery has sky rocketed, men’s health and fitness magazines are soaring, and 10 percent of college student men are suffering from eating disorders. Eating disorder is not just a “female problem”.
The Beauty Myth is a novel that relies on gender stereotypes that men and women are different and that they react differently. The novel appeals for women to take action against the myth, disregard the standards forced on them by men and embrace their natural beauty.
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