American Literature

In her book, The Beauty Myth How Images of Beauty Are Used against Women, Naomi Wolf dares to go where no woman would dare go  the inner recesses of their own minds.  It is here that Wolf a journalist by profession, has discovered something rather shocking.  Women are victims of violence.  But this kind of violence is not inflicted by society, let alone men.  Rather, it is the women themselves who are inflicting this violence on their own persons.  One must now wonder why would women want to do that.  Wolfs answer is in pursuit of beauty.  This is summed up by an unidentified insider from a pharmaceutical firm that manufactures beauty products and the like,Women take drugs in order to be seen as feminine.  The feminine womanis slim, passive, deferential to men and does not exhibit emotions such as anger, frustration or assertiveness.

It can be inferred from Wolfs thesis is that women are inherently masochistic, born to bear and endure pain and in its absence, would look for it and probably ask for more.  Ironically, in this day and age when women have asserted their right and freedom, they are still hurting themselves and they are doing it by trying to become and stay beautiful.  The way Wolf and other feminists see it, these women are subliminally submitting themselves to the will of men unwittingly.  Conventional wisdom, as dictated by men states that women need to be attractive as a way of building up her self-esteem but the feminist view maintains this submission to mens standards rather than let a woman be herself, free to be who she is and to live her life the way she wants to.

One example given in Wolfs book is breast augmentation.  There are women with small breasts who feel they are not woman enough and hence the need to make them larger and fuller.  They got this idea from pornographic materials that cater particularly to mens desires.  The violence here is that breast augmentation is a surgical procedure which entails going under the knife in order to perform the procedure where plastic surgeons insert silicone implants to enhance to shape and form of the breast and to those who have gone through this, if it is not painful, it can be discomforting which belies advertisements in print and television that shows women with enhanced breasts looking happy and satisfied.  This, according to the feminists, is a big lie.  This does not hide the fact that violence has been committed against women.  Besides breast augmentation, there is also rhinoplasty or nose jobs, changing shapes of eyes by Asian women to look more Caucasian and liposuction.  All these procedures require going under the knife and women are thereby allowing violence to be inflicted upon themselves.

In conclusion, Wolfs point is that beauty is a myth. Women are not beautifying themselves for their own sake but to satisfy mens desires.  It would be very easy and tempting to agree.  The researcher wishes to remind or caution those who read Wolfs work that this is seen from a feminist view and could probably be an opinion of the author herself. Yet no one can deny that she presents a very strong case and if it were to be implemented, it would be a daunting task as the vanity part of a womans psyche will continue to push her to enhance her looks and has a defense mechanism that allows her to overcome the fear of experiencing pain when she goes through any form of cosmetic surgery.