THE BEAUTY MYTH

The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf is one of the most crucial books I have ever read when it comes to feminism. What is this "Beauty Myth" one may ask? In Wolf's words, “As soon as a woman’s primary social value could no longer be defined as the attainment of virtuous domesticity, the beauty myth redefined it as the attachment of virtuous beauty”. The beauty myth is a tool used for the social control of women as a backlash after the feminist movements that brought about legislation ensuring no discrimination on the basis of gender in the workforce. Essentially, once women could get jobs and escape "their place" at home, male-dominated institutions had to come back with something to keep women from advancing any further in the world. They set a new standard that women are only valuable when they are pretty. Additionally, they redefine "pretty" with beauty standards impossible to achieve. What a lovely trap!

This Beauty Myth infests our society today. It ensures that women have lower self-worth when they don't look like a gaunt supermodel (the same way women had low self-worth in the 1950s when they weren't enough of a "happy housewife"). The beauty myth keeps women extremely vulnerable to outside approval. Magazines, movies, TV shows, news castors, videogames, etc. portray women as objects whose worth is based on how "beautiful" they look by the impossibly high set of standards society has laid out for them. Media floods us with content that makes people believe the most important thing about a woman is the way she looks. If looks are all that matters in a girl, then her looks will be all she cares for. Isn't that twisted? As soon as a girl turns 13 in this country, all her interests and dreams seem to fall into the background. What's left as the top priority is the incessant need to be "beautiful" (AKA impossibly thin, tall, poreless, hairless, completely symmetric, and the list goes on and on).

Women are also kept in the role of the consumer thanks to the beauty myth. Countless extra dollars are spent on diet pills and plans, waist trainers, gym memberships, shapewear, makeup, hair products, skin products, etc. All this to invest in being as "pretty" as possible! As a woman, I can only imagine how much time and money I could have saved if our society did not limit women this way.

It is infuriating to think about how much more I could be doing with my life if I was not so obsessed with how I look. It is often said that confidence is everything when it comes to being successful. I wonder, then, how much more successful could women be today without the burdens of insecurity and comparison that the beauty myth ensures us? Think about it: how much are you going to get done in this world when all you can think about is maintaining a size double-zero? How are you going to be confident when all you know is that you are not good enough? How much will your low confidence force you to miss out on when you cannot maintain or reach that double zero size?

Insecurity is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how much the beauty myth damages women psychologically. Life-threatening mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, eating disorders, etc. are products of these impossible standards set. NationalEatingDisorders.org wrote in their article, "Media & Eating Disorders" that "Numerous correlational and experimental studies have linked exposure to the thin ideal in mass media to body dissatisfaction, internalization of the thin ideal, and disordered eating among women",

Media is not the only source of reinforcement this beauty myth has. Every day, the beauty myth is adhered to when women are only given certain opportunities based on their appearance. Yep, I am talking about pretty privilege. Women should be given equal opportunity no matter how beautiful they are perceived. In all types of media, the women represented should look like real women of all shapes, sizes, and ethnicities- not just Barbie dolls. As a woman, success is not the same thing as being pretty and failure is not the same thing as rejecting impossible beauty standards. If women are to ever overcome this beauty myth, people must work to reject the beauty myth the same way the feminists of the past rejected the "happy housewife" standard.