Book report on The Beauty Myth Naomi Wolf - Essay Example

Report: The Beauty Myth written by Naomi Wolf is a book on the rights of women. It is more like a judgment. The talks about the problems faced by women that arise from the beauty myth such as work, culture, religion, sex, hunger and violence. Women from all walks of life meet with the same problem- they all want to be like the beauty images they see on television, advertisement, etc. - tall, thin, good bone structure, full lips, pert breasts…They might be realizing their concept of whole perfection is not really what perfection stands for, still they are overcome by beauty hallucination.

The interesting, yet sad fact about beauty is, it always exists in others and not us. Even the most beautiful person has tons of self discovered flaws. Everyone strives to make the impossible, possible. It’s no harm in admitting that the western beauty culture helps only in devaluing us. The transition from the stereotypical housewife to the news making beauty myth has resulted in lessening the status.Let’s get into the details.Wolf explains six main areas affected by the consequences of the beauty myth.

Work:Being beautiful as well as not, pose problems. For instance, at work, beautiful women are often mistaken as incompetent. They suffer from the discrimination that they are merely pretty and not good enough for work. If the women are not beautiful they are looked down as diffident and inactive. If a woman is harassed, that is again due to her beauty. Women are caught up in something like a catch22 situation. CultureThere are a lot of fashion magazines on demand. They all tell us how to be beautiful and why and when and lots more.

It is meant to shape our lives. It gives us information on a wide range of beauty products and puts us into buying them. These magazines make us feel inferior about our looks. They pressurize us intensely and they win in getting the women with big pockets spend and thrive on the products.ReligionThere was a time when everyone wanted to achieve spiritual salvation- when the Ultimate was the quest for moral principles and values. It has changed. The beauty myth has changed women to search for beauty salvation instead.

Now all they want is to be thin and beautiful and thereby to attain salvation.SexSexual relations with partner are highly affected by the myths. Sex needs freedom of expression and comfortable styles of doing. Our women are too much engaged in their looks and this has made them unnecessarily self-conscious and this, inurn, affects sex adversely. The women are made tenuous in their relationships and they develop poor self-esteem. No man wants to be an admirer of beauty all the time. He wants and expects a partner in himself and his woman.

HungerI should admit that Anorexia and Bulimia have become favorites of the beauty industry. It cannot be helped. How willingly women go hungry for days! If not going on hunger, it is lesser calorie intake. They develop a negative body image. Intense weight loss or intense weight gain, all lead to troubles. Let’s attribute these to the Myths.ViolenceLast, but not the least, let’s talk about the ready to face violence section. Domestic violence may seem far better than this self-inflicted one.

Women are ready for cosmetic surgery, sexual surgery and what not? These are all painful. It can damage the systems. There is no guarantee whether it can yield positive results. Yet, women get ready to be experimented upon, all because they want to be perfect.How the myth arose: The beauty myth did not arise out of nothing. It has firm roots in History. It all started with the results of Industrialization- the advent of the time when women started to pose challenges to men. It became necessary for them to stand firmly on their own.

The politics involved: The beauty industry cannot be considered as merely a tool to make the big money. Will you not agree if I say that corrupt politics is involved here? Women are always paid less than men. However, women spend more than men. The beauty pressure is upon women and the ‘big pockets’ would not mind spending quarters. No more inner beauty: Seems like Inner beauty is no longer significant. Though we realize that we seldom trusts a person based on external appearance, we have started to be like one and to pose like one.

I am against Wolf: I also admit that the book irritates me sometimes. It is the rule of nature. Don’t you see this in other living creatures? One sex always beautifies itself to attract the other sex. Hence, there is an explanation behind the time and fortune spent in women’s efforts. We all know that men go for quantity and women, quality. Can we admit that we are not beauty slaves? At least for our kids or nieces or for our mothers or grandmothers, at times, we are beauty slaves.About the author:The book seems like an honest piece of good workThe writing style shows her boldness.

However, there is no moderation seen in the work- either it is too loud or too mute.The author criticizes women’s fashion, but fails to admit the achievements made by women.