The Beauty Myth - Naomi Wolf - **

Note: I didn't remember to take notes until halfway through the book. The key concepts from earlier chapters were as follows:

- women face unfair discrimination based on arbitrary evaluations of their looks
- beauty is packaged as something easily achievable that everyone can, and should, have, when in reality nearing the accepted ideal requires serious investment for most and is nigh impossible for others
- the "Church of Beauty" concept, which equates the beauty industry and the sacrifices women make to it with religion
- the iron maiden: though I knew what it was, I didn't know they painted a woman on the outside
- one in three women are "strongly dissatisfied" with their bodies, compared to one in ten for men


There's a lot of stuff in there about how women work so hard, harder than men, etc. I'm ambivalent about this. I know a lot of women ceaselessly work two, three jobs, or even one demanding job, with a work ethic that would put a lot of men to shame. The discrepancy here is that I suspect that men are less inclined to agree longer hours and heavier workloads. Men are notorious for finding ways around these things. In short, my opinion is that while women might actually do more work than men during a given year, men might be more effective at their share.
- Also, the author believes housework equatable to work of the caliber that supports a stay-at-home: a premise that remains compelling only to those whose experience has never crossed it.



Chapter 5: Sex


If ads sold sex, heterosexual men and women would turn to one another and be gratified. Instead, they sell sexual discontent.

"hanging from a meat hook" - easily the most gruesome description of a sex act I've ever heard

Beauty, unlike sexuality, is not innate to women: equating the two does women a disservice

"A man is unlikely to be brought within earshot of women as they judge men's appearance, height, muscle tone, sexual technique, penis size, personal grooming, or taste in clothes -- all of which we do."
-- I am sadder for knowing this, but only because I suspect I'd be found wanting

"What little girls learn is not the desire for another, but the desire to be desired."
-- This book is copyright 1991 and this still rings true.

" 'Preoccupations with her appearance, concerns about face and hair' ranked among the top four qualities that most annoyed men about women."
-- my top four: doesn't do what she says she will, doesn't know what she wants, needy, conceited

Loving a woman the way she is is less exciting than giving her a four-star rating.


Chapter 6: Hunger

This chapter's about eating disorders, so I skipped it. As wrong as it is, I find women who accept anorexia as a lifestyle very attractive. Any woman with the discipline it takes to bear the suffering anorexics endure is virtually guaranteed to be self-motivated, competent, and aware of her sexuality. Bulimia is like anorexia for cheaters, conferring the "reward" with none of the benefits. Bulimics are not so hot.


Chapter 7: Violence

"The Hippocratic Oath begins, 'First, do no harm' "
-- I checked that and it actually doesn't, score one for the internet of 2007 -- the First, do no harm principle does have to do with doctors, but it's something they're taught in med school.

This chapter's largely about cosmetic surgery.

"In the Milgram Experiments of the 1950s, researchers placed subjects' hands on a lever and told them the lever would administer a shock to people they couldn't see. Then, scientists told them to keep administering increasing levels of shock. The subjects, unwilling to disobey scientific authorities telling them it was right, and cut off from seeing the "victims", raised the electric currents to fatal levels."
-- oh shit, that's worth knowing


Chapter 8: Beyond the Beauty Myth

"Many women have described the sweeping revelation that follows even one experience of communal all-female nakedness."
-- the revelation that most women don't look like models? What?

"It is clear that the amount of pain a woman experiences through the beauty myth bears no relationship at all to what she looks like relative to a cultural ideal."
-- there's a story here about a model who can't believe people who don't notice some tiny flaw, it reminds me of the story in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! where he draws a similarly neurotic model

"Men are only in sexual competition when they are competing sexually, but the [beauty] myth puts women in 'sexual' competition in every situation."

-- the author talks about how advertising is beginning to target men with its own beauty myth, and states that "Since men are more conditioned to be separate from their bodies, and to compete to inhuman excess, the male version could conceivably hurt men even more than the female version hurts women."
-- men don't compete with each other on a beauty scale because we know where we rank in relation to other men: "more attractive" or "less attractive", end of story.
-- I started working out for aesthetics, but kept doing it for strength. Now I'm way stronger and more attractive than I was years ago.. I think I've only spent about $125-150 on vitamins, supplements, and exercise guides over a three-year period.

"You do not win by struggling to the top of a caste system. You win by refusing to be trapped within one at all."
-- words of wisdom