After finishing Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth, I looked into the reviews and analysis from modern critics, and began to notice a clear pattern of people seeking to distance themselves from their support of the author, due to her controversial views on divisive topics such as Covid lockdowns, as well as claims of some of the statistics quoted in her work being somewhat inaccurate. Even telling a progressive, feminist friend that I was reading the book had an initial reaction of surprise due to the person having heard about the writer’s Covid views, despite not having engaged with her work at all.
Leaving these criticisms aside as irrelevant to the work, I was struck by how prescient Wolf’s insights truly were, and how well written the book is, even if at times not all the arguments were equally convincing to me personally, particularly in her assessment that while the stringent beauty norms being applied to women would be lucrative, as greater return on investment is sought, the market opportunity to make men feel insecure would also be explored – something we are seeing reflected in male steroid use, cosmetic work and the surges in hair transplants.
Though published in 1990, The Beauty Myth evaluates some of the strange and damaging cultural norms we still see today, and in many cases she read the signs to accurately predict some of the trends we see today – for example, looking to the recent widespread adoption of Botox, lip fillers, and eyelash extensions as treatments that women from all ages, races and socio-economic backgrounds now increasingly see as essential, despite their relatively high expense, and a lack of regulation which has at times seen women left with serious health consequences – with fillers gone wrong even resulting in blindness, skin necrosis and aesthetic deformities.
A range of bizarre cultural norms I had myself noticed and felt worried about, were picked up on by Wolf in 1990, and with new technologies being developed all the time and new ‘flaws’ about women’s appearances created, normalised and used to drive revenues from expensive cosmetic or beauty procedures, the business of making women feel unworthy or ‘less than’ in their natural appearance is a very lucrative business, meaning huge amounts of personal wealth can be accrued by the individuals and companies who profiteer from the engineered insecurity, and the erosion of self-acceptance, historically mostly directed towards women.
Wolf presents a compelling argument, that the concept of beauty, presented as a harmless and benign concept, is actually an increasing noose around the necks of women and girls in our society. In her first chapter, she argues that the seemingly endless new beauty treatments women are pressured into feeling that they need to adopt into their routine, is a new means of keeping women in line, preoccupied and too exhausted to challenge the status-quo, or work towards educating themselves or applying the political pressure on governments or other organizations, that could lead to scrutiny, coordinated protests, or long-term systemic changes.
Keeping women bombarded with unattainable and photoshopped or heavily filtered images, we are left constantly insecure, confidence is undermined, and therefore we are often left second-guessing our importance in society unless we conform to today’s beauty norms. How can someone feel empowered to speak out as woman when we see in our society that women are glorified for being the right weight, the right body type, age, ideally supermodel looks, fillers, clear skin, hair extensions and designer clothing, even if their output is mediocre at best? We are setting a clear precedent to women everywhere – what you think and what you know, matters less than how you look, and how much men desire you.
For men, there are numerous examples of the rogue genius who is allowed to look disheveled, behave eccentrically or fall completely outside the modern male aesthetic ideal, however it seems the Beauty Myth described by Wolf has been very successful in its aim. We only need to look at cultural pulse checks such as Instagram, TikTok, music videos, reality TV and more, to get a huge amount of information as to how much beauty standards have been doubled down on, in terms of society’s requirements for women, and how these are being increased at an alarming pace. For a young woman absorbing all these cultural refence points and status symbols being given to aesthetically gifted but otherwise unremarkable women, and seeing the smallest anomaly in terms of looks, weight or dress, being scrutinized and pulled apart by critics not just in official media, but also in the comments sections or discourse they are exposed to among peers, it is truly no wonder that we are seeing a rise in body dysmorphia, a staggering and life-threatening epidemic of anorexia, bulimia and orthorexia, and of course crucially young women start to doubt themselves and their worth to society, if they don’t meet all the aforementioned criteria. Even for someone who is fortunate to have a good level of confidence, and strong critical thinking skills to be mindful of these pressures and cognizant of the financial and incentives to perpetuate this unfair pressure, it still can take mental energy and huge amounts of effort to not become influenced by such consistent messaging from society. For those in positions of power, of course it is more helpful if adults are focused on superficial and non-crucial issues like appearances, rather than taking up the mantle of political reforms, tackling persistent issues such as harassment, pay inequality and unequal divisions of household tasks and unpaid care work. There is no room for denying that our economy is hugely dependent on unpaid or extremely underpaid labour, which has enormous and tangible benefit to society – for example the care of children, elderly relatives, and those with mental and physical illness. This work currently falls disproportionately on the shoulders of women, and it is hardly an exaggeration to call it a bedrock of our society which allows other parts of the economy to function, yet this integral work is not counted within any calculation of an economy’s GDP.
Wolf highlights the vast amount of capital which is poured into beauty treatments, cosmetics, skincare and plastic surgery across the globe, with money changing hands often due to negative emotions such as feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, or the fears which are preyed on, that if we do not look good enough we will lose our status in society or even to our partner’s. Wolf makes a fascinating point on this, which echoes what many men say when their partners mention insecurities or the potential of them undergoing cosmetic treatment – that this work is not necessarily for the male partner, as they may even directly say that they prefer natural looks without enhancements – but rather, it is about meeting society’s golden standard which we are constantly given subliminal reminders about.
Wolf presents the facts, that preying on women’s insecurities, cleverly using terminology to describe products which resonates with real challenges women are facing and reflects how they want to feel. One example could be a women who feels harassed and overworked, may be particularly susceptible to the allure of expensive but scientifically unproven skincare regimes, which markets itself using terminology that describes self-care, protection, nourishment – all the qualities missing from her daily emotional life. Experts in the domain of influence and persuasion are paid substantial amounts to tap into our innermost fears and desires, and there is no doubting their efficacy in doing so.
Challenging this billion dollar industry, which has enriched so many, is clearly no small feat, and Wolf at no stage misleads her readers into believing it is a straightforward task.
There is big business in making women feel like living, breathing aesthetic window-dressing, and the billion-dollar cosmetic surgery industry, the weight-loss and diet industry, the beauty and cosmetics industry, are not easy adversaries to take on. ‘Beauty’ in and of itself itself may seem like a benign or harmless concept, but we should be extremely aware of the vested interests at play, and trace the lines from the billions in revenues to look closely at who stands to benefit from the continual nudging towards more and more cosmetic work being done to look acceptable or ‘groomed’. In this pursuit, huge advertising spends are deployed, fresh areas for insecurity are created and perpetuated (such as the rise of BBL and other procedures where women risk death to achieve a Kardashian figure) – and lo and behold, certain companies have just the answer to this specific new issue! Psychologically manipulative tactics are deployed to achieve greater amounts of revenue Year on Year, but not everyone wins as a result of this relentless pursuit of perfectio. A multitude of disheartening long-term consequences of society selling out the abilities, confidence and wellbeing of women and girls, distorting the realities and perceptions of not just women, but also men, towards themselves and their perceptions of their loved one, but also leading to some of the issues touched on above, from eating disorders, to death by surgery, and all the loss of opportunities and wasted potential that comes from a life devoted to just looking good, instead of pursuing other passions or interests.
Overall, The Beauty Myth is a deeply important work, which provides ideas which could be a crucial part of a blueprint in how we tackle this ongoing issue, and could play an integral role in saving future generations of women and even increasingly men, the pain and suffering and even risk to life that is often promulgated by these dangerous and toxic myths about ‘beauty.’
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