The Myth Surroundind Female BeautyEssay Preview: The Myth Surroundind Female BeautyReport this essayThe Myth Surrounding Female BeautyResearch that I have undertaken for this project has led me to literature on Lacan’s mirror stage, the history of the mirror, feminist theories and issues surrounding female beauty. My visual work is focused around the female body and is intended to portray the idea of the self criticism women place upon themselves and their bodies. It also represents the way in which many women are not happy with their bodies in comparison to the perfect body society dictates they should aspire to possess. Therefore for this literary review I have decided to concentrate on The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf (1990) and The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir (1993).
In the first chapter of her book Wolf discusses the idea of a beauty myth that has beencreated, surrounding women and explains its origin. She describes the beauty Myth asbeing:�….a political weapon against women’s advancement’ (p2)and suggests that this idea has been in force since the Industrial Revolution when womenfirst released themselves from domesticity (p2). She talks about the Beauty myth beingsomething women wish to embody and men wishing to possess a woman who embodies it (p2). Is this the reality? Do we, as women, aspire to be the typified female beauty? Do men desire the woman who is or who aspires to be beautiful? Wolf states that strong men, apparently, strive for beautiful women as beautiful women are seen to be more reproductively successful (p2) which therefore places assumptions on beauty being correlated to a woman’s fertility. This, Wolf says, is based around sexual selection and is inevitably unchangeable (p3).
Wolf suggests that beauty was not a serious issue with regards to becoming a potential wife before the Revolution as women’s work skills, material shrewdness, strength and fertility were of more value to men seeking marriage (p4). However, the beauty myth is not just about the male opinion of women and surely the idea of the beauty myth is not just with reference to potential wives but refers to all women?
In de Beauvoir’s book she refers to magazines that have asked the question; What has become of women? (p38) She then suggests that we should first ask; �What is woman?’ According to one, the answer was �woman is a womb’(p36) Does this imply that women are only regarded as a procreation machine? Is this what Woolf describes as the ideal requirement that men desire in a prospective wife (p4)?
As women became more fairly included in education, the economy, law, and culture and pursued typical male orientated professions a more private reality took over the female conscious according to Wolf (p6). She suggests that these more liberated women are now stronger materially but still do not feel as free as they would like to be as now they can be weakened psychologically (p6).
Wolf states that after the Industrial Revolution technological advances meant that for the first time reproductions could be made and therefore with the invention of photography images of beautiful women began to appear in advertisements, postcards and the like (p5). Here, Wolf insists, began the rise of the Beauty Myth and the beginnings of self criticism among women (p5).
However if we consider art, in particular paintings, we can look back and clearly see that the female image has always been reproduced and has been focused on female beauty in a great deal of early paintings. In particular, the renaissance paintings of Venus and those of the woman and her mirror. Were these not images of women contemplating themselves? Did these women not aspire to be beautiful and desirable?
These images of women and mirrors can be deemed as narcissistic in their representation of the female sex. De Beauvoir focuses on this in chapter twenty two and states that women are seen to be the more narcissistic of the sexes (p661). She talks about women not receiving recognition as individuals through their functions as wives, housekeepers and mothers and therefore being forced to find their individuality from within their person (p661). However, times have changed and women do have many more responsibilities. Yes, many women become wives and mothers and are happy with just that but many more women have careers that they are proud of and receive recognition for the work they do and some women strive for both.
In addition to the pressures of being successful and the responsibilities we, as women, place on ourselves today we are also made to feel insecure about our appearance and feel the need to strive to achieve society’s notion of the perfect body.
Many women are ashamed to admit these feelings of insecurity and feel that as strong, individual and powerful liberated women and according to Wolf (p1) such trivial concerns really should not matter. Wolf states that some women are wondering if these worries are to do with a relationship between female beauty and female liberation (p6). I have to disagree somewhat as I; personally, do not feel guilty at having the similar freedom as our male counterparts. However the idea that all women aspire to be beautiful does have an air of truth. If you ask most women about what they would wish for or change about themselves, if they had the opportunity; they would almost definitely suggest some physical alteration to themselves as to be beautiful is deemed to be worthy and is part of the Beauty Myth.
In Wolf’s view some women see other women as the only way to make others do so, and many of them see men acting as they believe they will when they wish.
The problem is often that the concept of man as passive and passive is so vague and inextricably linked to these concepts, there is almost always a gap in these concepts for women to fully grasp. Therefore, when confronted with reality from a man’s perspective it has an added element of meaning.
The truth is that, it often happens that women’s beauty and comfort are far more limited than men’s. When confronted with a man’s own beauty and comfort as a man, and the truth and reality that he is not only less, but not only much more beautiful than their father or parents, as an independent person, they may not even realize it. When confronted with their own beauty and comfort as their own, it often means not only having a body that is in a good position to support them, but having it that is in good enough shape to be supported by a woman. This can be challenging because, if an independent woman is able to provide care for their own needs, this body is still not as well designed as the body they would be required to give them depending on the way they wanted their bodies to be designed. This can lead to them feeling at fault for giving up to being a successful man after a period of transition, and often causing the self esteem issues women experience with men that the independent woman would wish to avoid.
Because independent women feel that their strength is less than men’s physically, it can sometimes just mean an individual needs to be physically stronger and have to be placed in a position that is more physical to support them and protect them from being abused, neglected, physically injured, or otherwise damaged inside. This can be very emotionally taxing to one of the women in their lives and can be a very dangerous psychological environment when a woman is in the position of having to fight against a male who is simply out of touch with it.
In Wolf’s view, when he refers to both male and female beauty, it will often be men who can be “good enough” and not too strong, as the two “strong females” that are physically more than a lot of others in their age range need to be able to withstand being physically strong and have the chance to compete with the more powerful and physically demanding male that they want to be. In reality, that is not really how women are supposed to feel. As she is physically frail a small amount of women become incredibly strong men.
As we know, it is women in general that are more likely to have these doubts about themselves, about the way one’s body looks, the way one functions, and especially about whether her or his body can support her. In Wolf’s world these doubts will be part of the “beauty myth” which he labels as the only valid way to find people who are “good enough” and will not only support them, they will take to wearing their most beautiful clothes or not even even wearing those they like. While you may be surprised at how much a person is comfortable wearing, very few women can