The Beauty Myth

The Beauty Myth explores how women’s identities are affected by beauty standards within the modern West’s mass consumer culture. According to Wolf, despite all the political and social advancements achieved by feminists, women “do not feel as free as they want to” (9). Modern women are under intense psychological pressure because of the beauty myth, which links women’s worth with their appearance, measured according to a commodified ideal. Wolf asserts that the idea of beauty is still an effective tool for controlling women; therefore, it is not a coincidence that the beauty myth arose at the same time as women obtained significant political, social, and economic rights.

Wolf highlights some of the themes in her book. One example is the religious undercurrent in the beauty myth, including both patriarchal aspects of Christianity and undercurrents shared by other belief systems. Wolf cites religious references that include reducing a woman to her reproductive capacity and religion-inspired imagery used in product advertising. Another concern of Wolf’s is what she calls “beauty pornography,” in which female beauty is linked to sexuality. She asserts that this linking purposefully undermined women’s sexual liberation that resulted from the sexual revolution of the 1960s.