response to Naomi Wolf :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What modern society dictates women should look like has had a great impact on commonplace women and how they feel they should look and act. I have no doubt a huge problem exists in society as a result of this. I think it has resulted in women being put to the side in terms of advancement. It also evokes a sense of low self-esteem. Little girls everywhere are brought up in front of an image they can never achieve. A truly ideal woman is one who has the confidence in herself to know that she is beyond that image. The key word there is confidence. Unfortunately, the magazine cover industry breaks confidence with its portrayals of thin, tall women. The ideal magazine cover woman is an unattainable fallacy. However, there is no guilty party to be blamed for this fact. Faulting the companies putting that image to use is unjust. The idea that women are subjected to an unfair amount of pressure as a result of the fashion world and other media outlets is hardly new, but Naomi Wolf takes this claim to a new and absurd level. Her essay is as unorganized as it is impractical. Her ideas are presented in a smorgasbord of flawed logic. Particularly disturbing is what she calls the â€Å"beauty myth.† What I disagree with is the word myth. According to Wolf, women in magazines and advertisements have approximately 20% less body mass than that of the average woman, creating an unattainable standard. This fact in no way supports her claim of a â€Å"beauty myth.† The existence of a myth suggests something to be untrue in nature. Magazine companies and advertisement agencies are not in the business of showing an average woman. They are in the business of selling a product. Of course they are going to use beautiful people. These companies completely regard the fact that most women do not in fact look like t his, but they know that their product would be less appealing if they displayed average or unattractive women. Therefore, they do not deserve scrutiny over the fact that they do not present a typical woman. They in fact do the same for men. Wolf says, â€Å"The beauty myth is not about women at all. It is about men’s institutions and institutional power† (page 485, first new paragraph). How does one begin to say how warped this impression is?