Naomi Wolf and the beauty myth

¶ … Beauty Myth

Naomi Wolf's the Beauty Myth

Language is one of the most fundamental components of human communication, encompassing everything from the banal to the philosophical. Used effectively, language has the power to argue theories and manipulate opinion. This essay will discuss how Naomi Wolf successfully uses emotive language in her book The Beauty Myth to communicate her concept of modern feminism and the place of women in society. Wolf illustrates her theories through the use of several distinct styles of emotive writing, which, for the purposes of this essay, shall be classified as dream language, inflammatory language, victim language and the language of female consciousness.

In The Beauty Myth, Wolf makes repeated reference to the fictionalised ideal of the modern woman. Through the use of such descriptors as dream, fantasy and hallucination, Wolf suggests to the reader the constructed and false nature of the feminine image to which the modern woman must aspire - "growing, moving and expressing their individuality, as the myth has it" (Wolf 11). Wolf's careful placement of the descriptive noun myth clearly reinforces to the reader her opinions. The modern woman who is able to perform domestically, professionally and physically - seeking "the attainment of virtuous beauty" - does not exist (Wolf 11). She is a construction; a myth defined by a society who "feel the need to defend itself by evading the fact of real women, our faces and voices and bodies" and instead champion an image which guarantees the continued "enslavement" of women (Wolf 11).

It is, as Wolf so astutely notes herself, not necessary to form a conspiracy theory. Instead, it is only necessary to create an atmosphere. Wolf's choice of language effectively creates an atmosphere throughout The Beauty Myth which undermines the modern social construction of women. She is able to emphasise the hollow nature of these ideals - women are not presented with fact, nor history, nor role models. They are presented with fiction and fantasy. Through the very nature of these descriptors, Wolf successfully communicates to the reader that these images are not, and cannot, be synonymous with reality.

Indeed, the very title of the work, The Beauty Myth, has already conditioned the reader to approach modern ideals of feminine beauty as false - they are myths, unattainable and, more importantly, unsubstantiated realities, akin to the Loch Ness monster and the Abominable Snowman. Yet, unlike other myths, the beauty myth is insidious in its apparent truth - why not strive for the attainment of virtuous beauty, when, as Wolf points out, female-focused media promote these myths as utterly real. As Wolf notes, "the aspirational promise of women's magazines that they can do it all on their own is appealing to women who until recently were told they could do nothing on their own" (Wolf 29). This statement is a reminder that the women's magazines are effectively fooling women, while telling them what they can and should be. In a larger sense, this statement is a reminder that women have always been looking to society to tell them what they should be. While society once said women could do nothing on their own, it now says women must be beautiful and appealing. By putting both the ideas of the past and the ideas of the present together, Wolf is raising the point of why women are ever looking anywhere to be told what they should be. In effect, as long as women are allowing themselves to be governed by what anyone else demands, they are open to being misled by myths. Wolf also effectively argues that modern women are only propelled further towards embracing "absolute personal liability for body size and aging" (Wolf 29). In short, Wolf's simple use of the title word myth is a successful tool all by itself - the baggage associated with this word immediately frames all that follows within the book, and conditions the reader to be sympathetic to the theories presented within.

Furthermore, Wolf strikes an interesting note with her references to the fiction present in modern images of femininity. Fiction differs significantly from myth in implied intention and origin. As discussed above, myth certainly communicates falsehood and mass miscommunication. Fiction suggests a slightly different angle - one of deliberately constructed pretence in order to serve a purpose. Wolf's language emphasizes her assertions that "a private reality colonized female consciousness" (Wolf 29). The reasonable aspirations of the average woman - domestically, professionally, but most of all, physically - are fictions of femininity. Femininity, presented throughout media and society as the most desirable trait of the modern woman, is rewritten to become a generously fictionalised account. Wolf successfully argues that fictions of femininity are instrumental in reconstructing "an alternative female world with its own laws, economy, religion, sexuality, education, and culture, each element as repressive as any that had gone before" (Wolf 16).

Wolf's repeated use of the word fiction is uncompromising and effective - the reader cannot consider modern ideals of femininity to be genuine when fiction is so plainly contrasted with fact. The author tells us these ideals are mere fiction - concocted truths. She engages with the reader and forces an acceptance of this argument through mere use of the descriptive noun fiction - we accept that constructs of femininity are fiction, and thus we will accept the concepts which accompany this term. In this way, Wolf is successfully able to communicate her theories about the images of femininity in modern society, and convincingly establish a framework for further arguments.

In fact, it is Wolf's definition and contextualisation of these words - dream, fiction, myth, hallucination - within discussion of the female identity that forms the basis for all that follows. She successfully conditions the reader to engage with her arguments through choice of language - fictions of femininity, ephemeral beauty, female guilt - and whilst the reader may not necessarily agree with her assertions, she has nevertheless constructed an atmosphere in which the reader is forced consider them.

Furthermore, it can be seen that Wolf chooses her language carefully in order to have maximum impact on her female audience - she conveys her ideas in a way designed to resonate particularly with women. Let us now focus on three key passages from The Beauty Myth and their relevance to Wolf's manipulation of language. These passages will be analysed closely to show how Wolf makes her point not just by what she says, but by how she says it. Close analysis of these passages that much of Wolf's influences is based in her careful choice of her words and her ability to frame her arguments in a way that elicits an emotional response.

The first passage that will be considered describes women's magazines and their influence on women. Wolf describes the impact of women's magazines in the following passage:

And then the further the magazine guides the reader on her positive intellectual journey, the further it will drive her at the same time down the troubled route of her beauty addiction. And as the experiences along the way become ever more extreme, the stronger will grow women's maddening sense that our culture has a split personality, which is seeks to convey to us through a seductive, embarrassing, challenging and guilt-laden quid pro quo between dazzling covers (Wolf 85).

A defining phrase in this passage is guilt-laden. It is a phrase that appeals to the female conscience, a word which hammers home negative feelings as it works inside to inspire change, wanted or not. Wolf cleverly uses it over and over again throughout the entire text. Guilt is a word that works on women insidiously; it is a part of almost every advertising campaign aimed at them. Guilt over what they eat: Give in to temptation! Only 5% naughty! Look after your body! Are you treating your body the way it deserves? And so on. Guilt over how they look: Lose weight for summer! Put the sparkle back into your skin! Hide those pesky bags under your eyes! Guilt over how they dress. Are you wearing the right clothes for your shape? Tired of looking dowdy? Guilt over their careers: Are you in the right job? Have you broken through that glass ceiling? Guilt over their relationships: Single and sick of it? How to finally land a man! Are you giving your man what he really needs? Guilt over their femininity: How to feel like a real woman! Guilt over their parenting skills: Do you do enough for your child? Are you giving your children what they really need? Guilt over their domestic life: Are you keeping your family healthy? Are you finding those hidden dirt and germs? Guilt over time spent on themselves: Learn how to make the most out of your day! Guilt over time spent on others: Do you take the time you need for yourself? Guilt over their sexuality: Are you having sex as often as you should? Bring back that flagging sex drive! Ten ways to really please your man!

Guilt is a driving force; it spurs women to make changes even as they loathe themselves for feeling the need to. Wolf did not choose this word arbitrarily. She is well aware of it portents and the fact that it is loaded with meaning for women, albeit unconsciously for many. It is guilt she is attempting to highlight for them, and guilt that she attempting to free them from by pointing out that its source is both external and patriarchal. Ironically, she adds yet another layer of guilt whilst doing so - Are you doing enough to be free of the patriarchal clutches? Have you realised that the world is yours for the taking? The sleight-of-hand of her prose is as illuminating as it is frustrating; Wolf wants women to free themselves from media-inspired guilt by loading themselves down with the guilt of not reacting enough against what she claims are aggressors and inhibitors of strength, peace and health. That she was successful in this endeavour is self-evident; the book's sales figures point to just how much she manages to speak to women in a language to which they respond, not just on an intellectual level, but a gut level. It is interesting to posit, however, that her choices of language fused with her over-arching message may be inspiring as much guilt in women as that which she is attempting to flay bare for them - patriarchal imagery and control.

The passage speaks of magazines as a guide for women, cementing Wolf's notion that women use publications such as magazines to direct and control their self-image and as a benchmark to measure themselves against. That Wolf consistently refers to such images as troubled, maddening and challenging underpins her message to women: that these self-styled guides are taking women down paths they should not be walking. The split personality of which Wolf speaks is that of the culture women are forced into - beauty - and the culture which they ignore in pursuit of it - the self, the realistic and the accepting. That the magazines are dazzling, Wolf does not gloss over. Choice of the word dazzling suggest that Wolf thinks women are stunned into complicity by the images they are presented with and told they should admire and seek to emulate - dazzled like a rabbit in the headlights. This image is a strong one that can be seen as a metaphor for women. It is even more apt when it is considered that women are not forced to read women's magazines. Women chose to and become dazzled, much as a rabbit is attracted to the headlines that stun it. This illustrates Wolf's effectiveness at weaving her point into her writing throughout her arguments.

The next passage that will be considered is one that presents the place of women in society and suggests that women are trapped within society. Wolf describes this with the following statement:

Possibilities for women have become so open-ended that they threaten to destabilise the institutions on which a male-dominated culture has depended, and a collective panic reaction on the part of both sexes has forced a demand for counter-images. The resulting hallucination materialises, for women, as something all too real. No longer just an idea, it became three dimensional, incorporating within itself how women live and how they do not live: it becomes the Iron Maiden. The original Iron Maiden was a medieval German instrument of torture, a body-shaped casket painted with the limbs and features of a lovely, smiling young woman. The unlucky victim was slowly enclosed inside her; the lid fell shut to immobilise the victim who died either of starvation or, less cruelly, of the metal spikes embedded in her interior. The modern hallucination in which women are trapped or trap themselves is similarly rigid, cruel, and euphemistically painted (Wolf 17).

Wolf's use of emotive language in this passage is extreme; it contains fear imagery, shock imagery, provocative statements, inflammatory language, dream language and victim language. When speaking of destabilising institutions, one is left with the images of buildings falling, of rack and ruin and undermining from within. It is a powerful image which Wolf uses deliberately to suggest the scope and authority of women who stand up and reach for what the male culture takes for granted. It also, however, parlays directly into the intrinsic female fear of change - what Wolf refers to elsewhere in the text as latent apprehension - the fear that women have of going too far and removing not only the domination and control of men, but the protection with which this provides them. Wolf posits that women are taught to seek protection, not to thwart it or shun it. Thus, the imagery involved in destabilising institutions could work either as a motivator or a threat to female readers. Either way, it is a powerful language choice.

When describing the Iron Maiden, Wolf appropriately uses victim language - enclosed, immobilise, trapped, rigid, cruel - both to paint the torture device for what it is, and to compare the plight of women controlled by an ideal to being caught in its vice. The comparison is apt, though some might think somewhat overwrought in its execution. It is likely that female readers will respond strongly to this image, both its undertones and its bald comparison to their existences. Feeling trapped is an emotion that persons of both genders experience often, although for women, Wolf claims it is of particular resonance; they are trapped in their roles, they are trapped in the system of living up to an impossible ideal, they are trapped by a gender construct that does not allow them the freedom and opportunities of their male counterparts without exacting a cost in self-recrimination, guilt and their internal sense of themselves. The dream language of this passage is transparent: hallucination, counter-images. The sense of these words underpins the falseness of that which Wolf states women are told to strive toward: an image of self instead of a real or whole self, a hallucination of what should be, rather than what is. With word choices like this, women are directed, consciously or otherwise, to examine their own notions of what in their existences is false and what it is that really matters.

The final passage that will be considered takes a similar tact. It describes the caricature of The Ugly Feminist with the following words:

Another hallucination arose to accompany that of the Iron Maiden: The caricature of The Ugly Feminist was resurrected to dog the steps of the women's movement. The caricature was unoriginal; it was coined to ridicule the feminists of the nineteenth century. Lucy Stone herself, whom supporters saw as "a prototype of womanly grace... fresh and fair as the morning" was derided by detractors with "the usual report" about Victorian feminists: "a big, masculine woman wearing boots, smoking a cigar and swearing like a trooper." (Wolf 18).

When Wolf references The Ugly Feminist, she does so with vitriol and contempt. Use of words like resurrected, denoting an unstoppable force which will rise again and again, hallucination denoting its fleeting grasp on what is actually real, caricature, meaning that which is over-the-top and not to be relied upon for truth. The Ugly Feminist is a Victorian construct which persists today - the stereotype of the brash, masculine woman who brays for equality - and more. The Ugly Feminist backlash continues. Feminist is a dirty word in 2006, and there are few young women who are willing to claim it. "I'm not a feminist, but..." says the university-aged young woman, who then goes on to espouse clearly feminist principles. "It's not that I'm a feminist or anything, but..." says the high-school aged teenager who then asks why her male classmates are treated differently, and why the rules are different for her. Wolf discusses this phenomenon to great effect, with continual use of angry and inflammatory language. The reader immediately understands her frustration at the stereotyping of the feminist as ugly and undesirable, and, what is apparently worse in a modern woman's eyes, unfeminine. Wolf accurately describes how this image prompts women to distance themselves from the feminist movement and their own feminist leanings, and how men are handed a useful catch-all insult to use when they are threatened by a female who seeks equal standing - an insult almost guaranteed to stop most women in their tracks. Feminist is a powerful word, and Wolf embraces it as much as she decries what it has come to mean.