The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf - Book

The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf explores how since women have gained social power that the standard of physical beauty has increased for women. “More women have more money and power and scope and legal recognition than we have ever had before; but in terms of how we feel about ourselves physically, we may actually be worse off than our unliberated grandmothers” (Wolf, 1991, p.10). Naomi Wolf explains how this standard of beauty in unattainable leaving women feeling bad about their image and needing to conform to these standards. She disapproves of the fashion and beauty industries who she believes take advantage of women. Naomi believes that women should have, "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."


A question that Naomi Wolf asked really stood out to me, “Does a woman’s identity count? Must she be made to want to look like someone else? (Wolf, 1991). I feel that this question she asked really helped develop my project because it made me think that by women looking through magazines (forms of media) it can influence them to change their appearance to look more ‘beautiful.’  Thefore trying to look like other ‘beautiful’ women shown to them. However this may leave women losing their identity because they are trying to conform into a different person, by changing their appearance. Once again the images covering the girls face in the photographic shoot show how a woman’s identity may be lost due to the media’s representation of women, the ‘beautiful’ ones.