Beauty Myth Short Edition

She wrote in the Preface to the paperback edition of this 1991 book, “I’d like to lay to rest three fallacies that often got in the way of its actual message. The first fallacy is that this book is antibeauty. If I could write [the book] again, I’d put the clear conclusion of the argument---that we need to embrace pleasure, choice in adornment, our own real beauty … AND call ourselves feminists---in the first paragraph… For I conclude that the enemy is not lipstick, but guilt itself; that we deserve lipstick, if we want it, AND free speech … we are entitled to wear cowboy boots to our own revolution…“A related fallacy is that [the book] objects categorically to images of glamour and beauty in mass culture. Absolutely not… The charge I made … [was that] the mass media aimed at women was not telling the whole truth about the beauty industry because they could not… The third fallacy in the debate is that I am constructing a conspiracy theory… A backlash against feminism that uses an ideology about beauty to keep women down is not an organized conspiracy with maps and pins, but a generalized atmosphere in which men’s fears and women’s guilt are addressed and elaborated through the culture’s images of women, and its messages to women about the relationship between their value and their bodies… The beauty backlash against feminism is no conspiracy, but a million million separate individual reflexes such as that one that coalesce into a national mood weighing women down…” (Pg. 1-4)She concludes this Preface, “in response to the criticism that the beauty myth is not the biggest problem women face today, of course that is true. But the beauty backlash arose specifically to hypnotize women into political paralysis. Therefore, by knowing how to break its spell, we liberate those occupied territories of our minds and energize ourselves to take up the real fight for women’s equality.” (Pg. 7)In the first chapter, she says, “The beauty myth is not about women at all. It is about men’s institutions and institutional power. The qualities that a given period calls beautiful in women are merely symbols of the female behavior that that period considers desirable: The beauty myth is always actually prescribing behavior and not appearance. Competition between women has been made part of the myth so that women will be divided from one another.” (Pg. 13-14) She adds, “This is not a conspiracy theory; it doesn’t have to be… The resulting hallucination materializes, for women, as something all too real…” (Pg. 17)She suggests, “In the breakdown of the Feminine Mystique and the rebirth of the women’s movement, the magazines and advertisers of that defunct religion were confronted with their own obsolescence. The beauty myth, in its modern form, arose to take the place of the Feminine Mystique, to save magazines and advertisers from the economic fallout of the women’s revolution.” (Pg. 66)She observes, “women must make their beauty glitter because they are SO HARD FOR MEN TO SEE. They glitter as a bid for attention that is otherwise grudgingly given… What women look like is considered important because what we say is not.” (Pg. 106)She states, “If she ages without the cream, she will be told that she has brought it on herself, from her unwillingness to make the proper financial sacrifice. If she does buy the cream---and ages… at least she will know how much she has paid to ward off the guilt. A hundred-dollar charge is black-and-white proof that she tried. She really tried. Fear of guilt, not fear of age, is the motivating force.” (Pg. 121)She concludes, “Are women beautiful or aren’t we? Of course we are. But we won’t really believe it in the way we need to until we start to take the first steps beyond the beauty myth. Does this mean we can’t wear lipstick without feeling guilty? On the contrary. It means we have to separate from the myth what it has surrounded and held hostage … We can dissolve the myth and survive it… I am not attacking anything that makes women feel good; only what makes us feel bad in the first place. We all like to be desirable and feel beautiful… The beauty myth is not, ultimately, about appearance or dieting or surgery or cosmetics---any more than the Feminine Mystique was about housework.” (Pg. 271-272)She concludes, “If women … affirm our attraction among ourselves, the myth will no longer hurt. Other women’s beauty will not be a threat or an insult, but a pleasure and a tribute. Women will be able to costume and adorn ourselves without fear of hurting and betraying other women, or of being accused of false loyalties. We can then dress up in celebration of the shared pleasure of the female body… in a positive rather than a negative offering of the self.” (Pg. 287)This book gave a much needed “lift” to the women’s movement, and was one of the first texts to be considered part of the “Third Wave” of the women’s movement. It should be considered as “must reading” for anyone studying feminism or the women’s movement.

[NOTE: page numbers below refer to the 348-page paperback edition.]She wrote in the Preface to the paperback edition of this 1991 book, “I’d like to lay to rest three fallacies that often got in the way of its actual message. The first fallacy is that this book is antibeauty. If I could write [the book] again, I’d put the clear conclusion of the argument---that we need to embrace pleasure, choice in adornment, our own real beauty … AND call ourselves feminists---in the first paragraph… For I conclude that the enemy is not lipstick, but guilt itself; that we deserve lipstick, if we want it, AND free speech … we are entitled to wear cowboy boots to our own revolution…“A related fallacy is that [the book] objects categorically to images of glamour and beauty in mass culture. Absolutely not… The charge I made … [was that] the mass media aimed at women was not telling the whole truth about the beauty industry because they could not… The third fallacy in the debate is that I am constructing a conspiracy theory… A backlash against feminism that uses an ideology about beauty to keep women down is not an organized conspiracy with maps and pins, but a generalized atmosphere in which men’s fears and women’s guilt are addressed and elaborated through the culture’s images of women, and its messages to women about the relationship between their value and their bodies… The beauty backlash against feminism is no conspiracy, but a million million separate individual reflexes such as that one that coalesce into a national mood weighing women down…” (Pg. 1-4)She concludes this Preface, “in response to the criticism that the beauty myth is not the biggest problem women face today, of course that is true. But the beauty backlash arose specifically to hypnotize women into political paralysis. Therefore, by knowing how to break its spell, we liberate those occupied territories of our minds and energize ourselves to take up the real fight for women’s equality.” (Pg. 7)In the first chapter, she says, “The beauty myth is not about women at all. It is about men’s institutions and institutional power. The qualities that a given period calls beautiful in women are merely symbols of the female behavior that that period considers desirable: The beauty myth is always actually prescribing behavior and not appearance. Competition between women has been made part of the myth so that women will be divided from one another.” (Pg. 13-14) She adds, “This is not a conspiracy theory; it doesn’t have to be… The resulting hallucination materializes, for women, as something all too real…” (Pg. 17)She suggests, “In the breakdown of the Feminine Mystique and the rebirth of the women’s movement, the magazines and advertisers of that defunct religion were confronted with their own obsolescence. The beauty myth, in its modern form, arose to take the place of the Feminine Mystique, to save magazines and advertisers from the economic fallout of the women’s revolution.” (Pg. 66)She observes, “women must make their beauty glitter because they are SO HARD FOR MEN TO SEE. They glitter as a bid for attention that is otherwise grudgingly given… What women look like is considered important because what we say is not.” (Pg. 106)She states, “If she ages without the cream, she will be told that she has brought it on herself, from her unwillingness to make the proper financial sacrifice. If she does buy the cream---and ages… at least she will know how much she has paid to ward off the guilt. A hundred-dollar charge is black-and-white proof that she tried. She really tried. Fear of guilt, not fear of age, is the motivating force.” (Pg. 121)She concludes, “Are women beautiful or aren’t we? Of course we are. But we won’t really believe it in the way we need to until we start to take the first steps beyond the beauty myth. Does this mean we can’t wear lipstick without feeling guilty? On the contrary. It means we have to separate from the myth what it has surrounded and held hostage … We can dissolve the myth and survive it… I am not attacking anything that makes women feel good; only what makes us feel bad in the first place. We all like to be desirable and feel beautiful… The beauty myth is not, ultimately, about appearance or dieting or surgery or cosmetics---any more than the Feminine Mystique was about housework.” (Pg. 271-272)She concludes, “If women … affirm our attraction among ourselves, the myth will no longer hurt. Other women’s beauty will not be a threat or an insult, but a pleasure and a tribute. Women will be able to costume and adorn ourselves without fear of hurting and betraying other women, or of being accused of false loyalties. We can then dress up in celebration of the shared pleasure of the female body… in a positive rather than a negative offering of the self.” (Pg. 287)This book gave a much needed “lift” to the women’s movement, and was one of the first texts to be considered part of the “Third Wave” of the women’s movement. It should be considered as “must reading” for anyone studying feminism or the women’s movement.

Amazing - should be required reading for every young woman, so that they may steel themselves against the pressures of unobtainable physical perfection. Women are powerful and have so much more to offer than their outer shells. Love the part on men being socialised to value women based on physical beauty - visual differences between the genders are not innate and immovable. The message of reclaiming self worth from the crushing demands of physical judgement, reduced value and unobtainable beauty perfection, is more relevant now than ever.

Well written and some aspects opened my mind to concepts/facts I had not considered before. I found myself getting quite agitated in parts and have become increasingly aware and 'determined' as a result of reading this book!

Buy it. Read it. The short version is easy to read and packed full of what every woman and man on this planet needs to know.

I want a new definition of beauty and this book has given me the confidence and determination to seek it. In a world with Trump in the Whitehouse and misogynistic abuse online, we need to fought for our own self-worth and continue to raise our voices in defense of women's rights.

A tiny book for a quick read. If you are looking for something simple but effective on the basis of feminism, then this is the book for you. It's a great taster and informative for anyone who wants to see what they think about the world of feminism.