The Female Beauty Myth

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the views of Naomi Wolf in her book "The Beauty Myth" that the enforced version of female beauty helps to maintain male economic and political power. The paper also discusses Noam Chomsky's argument that the powerful elite of our society deliberately manipulate the media they control in order to maintain the current status quo. The paper examines current popular media, especially television and film, to investigate whether these allegations appear to be valid. The paper concludes that the beauty ideal is indeed a myth that the elite of our society convey to us via the popular media in order to keep women in their inferior place.

From the Paper:

"In her book The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf argues that the ideal of female beauty that is projected in modern mass media is simply the latest method of keeping women in a subservient role within the patriarchal system. Wolf sees the aggressive pushing of a particular form of beauty as an important part of a backlash against the successes that have been achieved by the feminist movement. She believes that this enforced version of female beauty helps to maintain male economic and political power, by keeping women busy with diet and exercise, or keeping them so consumed by anxiety that they are unable to act effectively in the worlds of business and politics. Wolf argues this point with reference to many aspects of the popular media, noting that they all send the message that it is vitally important for women to be beautiful; and that in order to beautiful, women must be thin (and preferably also young, white and blonde). In considering these allegations, we also need to keep in mind that theorists such as Noam Chomsky have argued persuasively that the media is controlled by the powerful elite of our society, who deliberately manipulate the media they control in order to maintain the current status quo."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Achbar, Mark and Peter Wintonick. (Directors). Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media. Video. 1992.
• Brown, Laura S. "Fat-Oppressive Attitudes and the Feminist Therapist: Directions for Change." In Brown, Laura S. and Esther D. Rothblum (eds) Overcoming Fear of Fat. New York: Harrington Park Press, 1989.
• Chrisler, Joan C. "Should Feminist Therapists do Weight Loss Counseling?" In Brown, Laura S. and Esther D. Rothblum (eds) Overcoming Fear of Fat. New York: Harrington Park Press, 1989.
• Friends. Television series. Episode details retrieved from http://www.friends-tv.org
• Knightley, Keira. Picture on the Internet: http://www.imdb.com/gallery/granitz/4972/Events/4972/KeiraKnigh_Grani_9194734_400.jpg?path=pgallery&path_key=Knightley,%20Keira

More papers on The Female Beauty Myth:

• Analytical Essay # 89116 : "Naomi Wolf's "The Beauty Myth"
• Article Review # 117432 : "The Beauty Myth"
• Book Review # 96216 : "The Beauty Myth"

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