Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992 TAG: 9201260253
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by BONNIE NEWLON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SHAPING IDEALS OF BEAUTY: PATRIARCHAL PLOT OR MARKETING?
THE BEAUTY MYTH. By Naomi Wolf. Morrow. $21.95.\ Naomi Wolf's book promises more in the first chapter than it delivers. She claims to blaze a new trail with her observations on society, holding the promise of a seminal study on the sociology of beauty. Instead, we are served a verbose diatribe against a beauty myth which Wolf believes male culture has created to keep women in their place.
Her study ignores three basic premises: (1) Women have been using the beauty myth themselves to gain power and influence over men (and other women) since Cleopatra and before. (2) Men are also prisoners of the beauty myth as it applies to their gender. (3) Inner beauty is not mentioned until the end of the book when the author wonders why we don't consider it more.
In fact, inner beauty is and always has been the mysterious within us. The philosophy of most civilizations has focused on its nature and how to achieve it.
Aside from those criticisms, which one hates to deliver when the dust jacket promises us "a cultural hand grenade for the 1990s," the book includes some insights which bear consideration.
Wolf notes the qualitative nature of beauty and how it has changed over time. Women want to embody it, men to possess it. Beauty thus becomes a form of currency in society. As such, beauty is a potential weight in power relationships.
Does a beauty myth pushed by a patriarchal society make women dissatisfied with themselves, more docile workers, less likely to push too hard? Does it make fortunes for certain companies? Maybe, sometimes. It's true that beauty industries tally about $60.3 billion annually. Does Western culture rely on women to consume beauty products to stave off and mask aging as an important component of the economy? Probably.
But Wolf sees these facts as denigrating to women. They may also been seen as women taking the advantages available to market themselves better in a very competitive world where the "old girl" network is having a hard time getting started.
Wolf says "powerful interests depend on discord between the sexes." She believes the beauty myth underwrites this discord and keeps women slightly off balance and disadvantaged in the social and economic competition. Beauty stereotypes enhance female dissatisfaction with self, discourage self love and prime women for the hard sell of the beauty companies.
While some truth is found in fantasy, another approach is that an enhanced self-image is a positive force throughout a woman's life. This starts at home, not just in the women's magazines. While the potions of beauty may be largely hype, certain products do enhance beauty - like makeup - and women know this. They have played with cosmetics since childhood and enjoy emulating beauty. All the ads in the world aren't going to make women buy cosmetics, but they may induce them to buy a particular one. This seems more marketing than patriarchy.
Beauty's ideal has been so pervasive an influence through the eons and through all animal cultures that it cannot be compartmentalized as a power tool used by male society against women. Yet this is Wolf's message.
Her illumination of the forces of beauty in the work world, the way it is currently sold as a commodity and its influence on a woman's life are worthwhile, if only to make us adjust our personal attitudes and look for that which is deeper.
Too often our society makes short-term judgments on superficial evidence when we need to be seeking the lasting treasures instead. In that regard, a book on the sociology of beauty could be fascinating.
\ Bonnie Newlon is director of public works for Botetourt County.