These socially-sanctioned sexualities reflect cultural values, which often restrict women to a subservient role. Often, our desires are modelled on actions we’ve witnessed: on television, in porn, in stories from friends. “The sexual urge is shaped by society…human beings must also learn from external cues how to be sexual.” Whatever medium we consume, female nakedness is everywhere.

The stripped victim of the crime show serial killer. The naked torso of a woman in a magazine ad.

“To live in a culture in which women are routinely naked where men aren’t is to learn inequality in little ways all day long.” The gender imbalance is reinforced through images We are told the same story every day for our whole lives: we can be beautiful – if we buy another product, or follow another workout routine. “…there is a secret ‘underlife’ poisoning our freedom infused with notions of beauty, it is a dark vein of self-hatred, physical obsessions, terror of aging, and dread of lost control… images of female beauty a political weapon against women’s advancement.”Īccording to Wolf, the beauty myth is the illusion of perfection that women chase after. Our culture encourages women to hate their bodies Here’s a taster of Wolf’s timeless ideas, for those who haven’t dabbled, and for those who want a refresher.

I came to understand the mechanisms that created my body shame and eventually, the cage melted away with knowledge came freedom. Found by chance or divine providence in a secondhand bookstore, it helped my anger take form and direction. Reading Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth was a revelation. I was like a captive lion roaring at the bars on my cage, rather than my captors. Oh, I was angry. But how to articulate this? I railed against the forces that demanded conformity, but I didn’t understand what these forces were. And so my shame was ripped up by a hurricane. The world made me fear my lover would find my body repulsive. The world made me nervous to reveal my soft belly in a bikini. You’ll never be enough! laughed the flawless romantic interests from the big screen.īut as I got older, and learnt from strong women around me, I realised that my body wasn’t the problem. You’ll never look like us! taunted the supermodels in Dior spreads. When I flicked through magazines, when I went to the cinema, image after image slapped me across the face.

In my teenage years, I felt worthless because I wasn’t thin. I first came to the book when I was a baby feminist at 19 years old. T he Beauty Myth is a non-fiction book by Naomi Wolf, and a foundational feminist text that continues to ring true today, 26 years after it was published.

The beautiful myth