Beauty is
constantly changing, it is not universal. Naomi Wolf author of The
Beauty Myth, talks about this idea of the Iron Maiden. The iron maiden is
an unattainable standard of beauty that is used
to chastise women physically and psychologically for their failure to achieve
and conform to it. This beauty myth is centered around men’s power and
institutions, even with the feminist progressive movement, women are
stuck within this vicious cycle due to the Beauty Myth. Wolf stated and I quote
because this statement reigns true and needs to be a way of life; women should
posses "the choice to do whatever we want with our faces and bodies
without being punished by an ideology that is using attitudes, economic
pressure, and even legal judgments regarding women's appearance to undermine us
psychologically and politically". According to Wolf women were under attack
by the "beauty myth" in five areas: work, religion, sex, violence,
and hunger. The number accomplishments women achieve
in gaining equality for power, men will have the upper hand because of the link
between female appearance and self respect that they have created and enforced.
"Fat is sexual in women. . . to ask women to
become unnaturally thin is to ask them to relinquish their sexuality"
(Wolf, 193) She states, "a cultural fixation on female thinness is not an
obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience"
(Wolf, 187) This belief has led to the numerous eating disorders and level of
depression in women today. Magazines and other forms of the media reinforces
that thin is in, which in all honesty is nonscence because half of the images
shown to us are retouched, many of the models’ photos are altered to reach that
size 2 look that very unhealthy look.
Society uses images of female
beauty as a political weapon against women. There is a connection between
female liberation, and female beauty. When women got the right to their own
bodies with legalized abortion, they also started to feel like they needed to
look a certain way. This led to a rise of eating disorders in women. Women feel
like they need to look a certain way for men, and according to the article this
is what keeps male dominance intact. The qualities that make a woman beautiful
change during different time periods, and it is based on what men find
desirable. This is most likely because men have an image of being big and
strong, and women have an image of being frail and weak. Denying oneself food
is seen as bad for men but good for women. It is up to the third wave feminist
to fight to get rid of the beauty myth. It is the only way that women could
ever become truly equal to men. Freidan compares women now to older women that
used to wear girdles. The girls now wear invisible girdles. It is their self
image and they cant take it off at night. Wearing two piece bikini’s are not
freedom for women, its just another way that men can objectify them. Women are
now taught to fear men because men are sexual predators. Women have no energy
to escape men because they are anorexic. Women will never be as powerful to men
because of the mindset that the beauty myth gives them.
Naomi Wolf speaks on "The Beauty Myth"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjKx_p5KwEk
Naomi Wolf speaks on "The Beauty Myth"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjKx_p5KwEk
As a teen I also experienced the insecurity that came from the thinner women in magazines. During that time I never thought of it as a means to control. Being a black woman and far from skinny; I am on the total opposite spectrum for what is acceptable. I find it very interesting though that women would pick a smaller visual representation of beauty while men tend to pick women who are more thicker/heavy.
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