Assessing 'The Beauty Myth': Strengths and Shortcomings of Wolf's Approach to Femininity Savannah McClendon College

Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth was the first book she wrote after graduating from Yale in 1984 and Oxford in 1987 as an English major and Rhodes scholar (“Naomi Wolf”). The book is a call to arms for women of all backgrounds with regard to feminism (whether they are seasoned feminists or simply interested; Wolf uses accessible language to convey her points), to open their eyes to the way their oppression manifests within a paradoxical social standard of “beauty”. Wolf writes from her own devastating perspective, as a young woman growing up the victim to anorexia and sexual assault in 1970’s San Francisco, as well as engaging with the work of other feminist scholars, landmark court cases, the world of modern advertising, etc. to bring to female and feminist audiences the manifesto of the “Iron Maiden” - the beautiful, the rigid, the silent woman; the physical embodiment of internal punishment. The Beauty Myth was well received among such audiences, earning the title of “international bestseller” after its first publication in 1991 (“Naomi Wolf”). While not without its flaws, the extensive coverage and critical analysis in The Beauty Myth succeeds in breaking new ground with regard to the demystification of incessantly toxic beauty...