May. 14th, 2008
Lately I have taken more of an investigative interest in The Beauty Myth - both the book by Naomi Wolfe (which Warren purchased for me earlier this week - the darling!) as well as the idea itself. As shown in the Wiki entry (which, yeah, is always good for a drive-by), a portion from the Introduction:
The more legal and material hindrances women have broken through, the more strictly and heavily and cruelly images of female beauty have come to weigh upon us...During the past decade, women breached the power structure; meanwhile, eating disorders rose exponentially and cosmetic surgery became the fastest-growing specialty...pornography became the main media category, ahead of legitimate films and records combined, and thirty-three thousand American women told researchers that they would rather lose ten to fifteen pounds than achieve any other goal...
More women have more money and power and scope and legal recognition than we have ever had before; but in terms of how we feel about ourselves physically, we may actually be worse off than our unliberated grandmothers.Once I am finished The Beauty Myth , I may be interested in reading Camille Paglia's Sexual Personae, mainly because she apparently has an opposing view to what is written in The Beauty Myth . I'd like to see how Paglia portrays "... Western culture as a struggle between masculine, phallic, productive, sky-religion on the one hand, and feminine, chthonic, consumptive, earth-religion on the other...' as well as how "... Christianity did not defeat, but rather embraced Paganism." (Again, Wiki).I myself have been going through a huge transformation in the last few years regarding my perception - both intellectual and emotional - of these things...beauty, gender roles, identity. I know that I have very strong reactions to the whole idea of the Feminine Mystique as well as the thousands of messages that I - and my children - and hell, everyone - am bombarded with every day. The more I think about it, the more gigantic I realize it is. Even if it is confined to my own life and my own self-esteem, which I wrestle clumsily with day in and day out, it is an enormous issue. I'm ready to stop reacting emotionally and start investigating. That way, if I want to deliver something passionately, I can perhaps can have some critical thinking to balance the raging emotional fire in my belly.
The more legal and material hindrances women have broken through, the more strictly and heavily and cruelly images of female beauty have come to weigh upon us...During the past decade, women breached the power structure; meanwhile, eating disorders rose exponentially and cosmetic surgery became the fastest-growing specialty...pornography became the main media category, ahead of legitimate films and records combined, and thirty-three thousand American women told researchers that they would rather lose ten to fifteen pounds than achieve any other goal...
More women have more money and power and scope and legal recognition than we have ever had before; but in terms of how we feel about ourselves physically, we may actually be worse off than our unliberated grandmothers.Once I am finished The Beauty Myth , I may be interested in reading Camille Paglia's Sexual Personae, mainly because she apparently has an opposing view to what is written in The Beauty Myth . I'd like to see how Paglia portrays "... Western culture as a struggle between masculine, phallic, productive, sky-religion on the one hand, and feminine, chthonic, consumptive, earth-religion on the other...' as well as how "... Christianity did not defeat, but rather embraced Paganism." (Again, Wiki).I myself have been going through a huge transformation in the last few years regarding my perception - both intellectual and emotional - of these things...beauty, gender roles, identity. I know that I have very strong reactions to the whole idea of the Feminine Mystique as well as the thousands of messages that I - and my children - and hell, everyone - am bombarded with every day. The more I think about it, the more gigantic I realize it is. Even if it is confined to my own life and my own self-esteem, which I wrestle clumsily with day in and day out, it is an enormous issue. I'm ready to stop reacting emotionally and start investigating. That way, if I want to deliver something passionately, I can perhaps can have some critical thinking to balance the raging emotional fire in my belly.
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Annie