This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page

The Technocrat's Intellectual Review:

The Beauty Myth : How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women

by Naomi Wolf

The Beauty Myth is a book based on 3 allegations:

1. That women are constantly troubled and disadvantaged by constantly trying to live up to an impossible ideal of physical beauty.
2. That this is imposed on them by men.
3. That this is a great conspiracy to stop women from taking all the good jobs and high pay that men enjoy.

To this I have three separate responses.

1. Obviously, anyone who has ever compared a male's beauty routine with a female's can see that.
2. Bull. It is almost entirely imposed on them by other women. The men don't even notice the new $100 hairstyle, how can they be demanding it?
3. Point 2 makes this ridiculous but even if it didn't it suffers from the basic flaw in all such conspiracy theories. If men are so organised and powerful how come we stuffed up in so many other areas. If we can oppress a legally equal and slightly larger section of voters in an open democracy through our subtle wiles, how come we let them get the vote in the first place. How come it's not women who are expected to organize and pay for dates? And if there is a world wide conspiracy of men how come I wasn't told?

Of course, given the extreme difficulty of coming up with any evidence to support the second and third allegations, Wolf concentrates on providing evidence for the first. Unfortunately even here she makes a number of mistakes. This is unfortunate because as I said above there is ample evidence in any shared bathroom of the enourmous burden most women shoulder in their attempt to match the beauty ideal. However Wolf is perhaps aware that this evidence does little to implicate the male of the species, so she goes off in search of direct male imposition of beauty standards. Here she is on much less secure ground.

A fair number of anecdotal examples are given on women who are fired for not being pretty enough. However, from an Australian perspective I know that for at least two decades this has been plain illegal. I am also know that it is illegal in the USA as well, though I am not sure for how long this has been true. So what we have here is either examples from decades ago, which is hardly useful in illustrating the current situation in a field as fast moving as fashion and gender politics; or these are one off examples of people who are breaking the law, in which case the facts could not have been anywhere near as clear cut as Wolf describes, or the women could have taken the offenders to court and won enourmous payouts.

Likewise the claims of lower pay for women do not stand up to modern statistics or law. It is against the law to pay a woman less money than a man for doing to same job. Feminists counter this by arguing that overtime and commisions make the difference. Yet modern statistics claim that women with the same qualifications and experience earn on average 98% as much as men.

And it's not as though I am reading this in a vaccuum either. I have spent the last 13 years working in universities and private industry, and as far as I can tell women have MORE lattitude in how they dress and present themselves than men do. In an environment where men are expected to wear trousers, long sleeve shirt and tie, women are free to wear the same (without the tie) but are also free to wear short sleeve shirts, skirts, dresses, ski pants, and sometimes even t-shirts and shorts because frankly no man is prepared to get in a debate on womens clothing.

Likewise I have never, ever heard a women criticized for her hairstyle or lack of makeup, except by other women. Sometimes men do complain about women who plaster their faces with flourescent paint in the manner of Mimi from The Drew Carrey Show, but this is obviously a call for LESS spending and time on the womans part rather than more.

In short, the observation that women spent stupid amounts on their appearance is obvious, everything else she has to say is ridiculous. The Beauty Myth

Return To Patrick’s Homepage