The Beauty Myth : How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women, by Naomi Wolf

I love feminist books. Being born a woman, I've seen and felt things all my life, some of which have made me uncomfortable or downright unhappy. But it's hard to realize what's going on when that's all you've known. Until women like Naomi Wolf (or Christy Harrison) explain it, and what a balm it is.

Impressions

The Beauty Myth was a great success when it was published in 1990, but I now find it strangely difficult to find. It's a pity, because this book, despite its age, taught me things I didn't know, made unusual but surprisingly convincing connections between the influence of religion and that of what Naomi Wolf calls the "beauty myth" on women, all with an energy worthy of an ABBA song.

This book should be taken with a grain of salt. The figures the author proposes, on the number of deaths caused by anorexia in the United States for example, are sometimes greatly exaggeratedAnd as a blogger on Substack (whose name I unfortunately can't remember) pointed out, it can sound like a conspiracy theory.

But I forgive such shortcomings easily, because what matters is the comfort this book can bring to readers. We won't remember the exact numbers of deaths anorexia supposedly caused in the U.S. over 30 years ago, but we will remember the fact that this disease causes far too many, and disproportionately among women. We'll remember the profound sense of absurdity that invaded us when the author imagines a world where men would have surgeries to improve the appearance of their penises, with side effects similar to those of breast augmentation. And that's without mentioning the cult of thinness and its demands, which we all know so well and which literally ruin the lives of the majority of us.

I wish all women would read more feminist books, and this is one of them.