The Big Question (11)

While reading, The Beauty Myth, by Naomi Wolf, the main question that I keep asking myself is, what is true beauty?

We are always told that true beauty comes from the “inside,” but in today’s society we are constantly bombarded by the media with advertisements and people teaching us that beauty does not come from the inside, but rather outwardly adornments. For example, Kate Moss caused hysteria with her comment saying, “nothing taste as good as skinny feels.” Its sad that girls look up to a woman that is giving such negative advice.

After finishing, The Beauty Myth and Killing Us Softly 4, I realized how much advertisements subconsciously effect us all. They are constantly telling us that we need to bu things that alter our appearance because we are not “good enough.” We are made to believe that the day we have been dreaming of since our youth, our wedding day, will not come if you do not “look” beautiful in a mans eyes. Women go to painful lengths, such as cosmetic surgery, and tell themselves that it is not “painful” because it’s for beauty. We make ourselves believe that are bodies are not beautiful, when we could not having working legs, or have suffered from third degree burns. When it comes down too it, we are brainwashed.

Its said, because these companies that advertise to use are extremely successful, because we hate ourselves. They are selfish. They make women believe that, “if it flatters our self-esteem, it is not effective.” Somehow these people sleep at night, and I am not really sure how.

Wolf mentioned at the end of the book, that we need to talk about the beauty myth, in order for it not to effect us anymore. “This will be hard. Talking about the beauty myth strikes a nerve, which, for the most part f us, is on some leve very raw. We will need to have compassion for ourselves and other women for our strong feelings about the “beauty,” and be very gentle with those feelings.” We need to get in our mind that its less about looking beautiful, and more about feeling beautiful. “In a world in which women have real choices, the choices we make about our appearance will be taken at last for what they really are: no big deal. Women will be able thoughtlessly to adorn ourselves with pretty objects when there is no question that we are not objects. Women will be free of the beauty myth when we can choose to use our faces and clothes and bodies as simply one form of self-expression out of a full range of others. We can dress up for our pleasure, but we must speak up for our rights.”