Star1
3rd May 2010, 04:51 PM
By : Emily Maguire of the Sydney Morning Herald
http://images.smh.com.au/2010/05/03/1403934/naomi_wolf_420-420x0.jpg
The Beauty Myth 20 years on ... Naomi Wolf explains the evolution of sexism.
When I first read Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth back in the early '90s, it rocked my body-hating, angst-ridden, feminism-free teenage world. It had never occurred to me that anything other than vanity was behind the beauty-obsessed behaviour of every girl and woman
I knew. Wolf's theory - that the obligation to be beautiful keeps women too busy, weak and distracted to fight for equality - seemed instantly and inarguably right to me. Her passionately argued, pop-culture-sprinkled, research-dense book completely convinced me that there was a correlation between the increase in women's legal, economic and social power and the increase in pressure on women to conform to an increasingly narrow beauty standard.
I was far from alone. The Beauty Myth, first published in 1990, was an international bestseller; The New York Times called it one of the most important books of the 20th century. Over the next two decades, Wolf's books on female power (Fire with Fire), sex (Promiscuities) and motherhood (Misconceptions) and her widely published articles on all of the above - plus pornography, abortion and sexual harassment - showed her continued knack for distilling the big issues for women.
She also worked as a women's issues consultant on two presidential campaigns (Clinton in 1996; Gore in 2000), co-founded The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership and helped establish The American Freedom Campaign.
Read the whole story : http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/naomi-wolf-on-the-porn-myth-20100503-u3af.html
http://images.smh.com.au/2010/05/03/1403934/naomi_wolf_420-420x0.jpg
The Beauty Myth 20 years on ... Naomi Wolf explains the evolution of sexism.
When I first read Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth back in the early '90s, it rocked my body-hating, angst-ridden, feminism-free teenage world. It had never occurred to me that anything other than vanity was behind the beauty-obsessed behaviour of every girl and woman
I knew. Wolf's theory - that the obligation to be beautiful keeps women too busy, weak and distracted to fight for equality - seemed instantly and inarguably right to me. Her passionately argued, pop-culture-sprinkled, research-dense book completely convinced me that there was a correlation between the increase in women's legal, economic and social power and the increase in pressure on women to conform to an increasingly narrow beauty standard.
I was far from alone. The Beauty Myth, first published in 1990, was an international bestseller; The New York Times called it one of the most important books of the 20th century. Over the next two decades, Wolf's books on female power (Fire with Fire), sex (Promiscuities) and motherhood (Misconceptions) and her widely published articles on all of the above - plus pornography, abortion and sexual harassment - showed her continued knack for distilling the big issues for women.
She also worked as a women's issues consultant on two presidential campaigns (Clinton in 1996; Gore in 2000), co-founded The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership and helped establish The American Freedom Campaign.
Read the whole story : http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/naomi-wolf-on-the-porn-myth-20100503-u3af.html