The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women
Naomi Wolf
The cult work of the American writer and journalist Naomi Wolf. In it, the author talks about where stereotypical ideas about female beauty come from and why they restrict the freedom of women no less than patriarchal "domestic slavery". Physical perfection becomes an obsession for women, and inconsistency with it becomes a source of suffering. But even having reached the ideal, a woman still loses, because she sacrifices her natural beauty, health, energy, sexuality, and sometimes life, to the generally accepted standard of appearance. The author argues that in the modern world, a woman herself is able to decide how she wants to live and look, without regard to the dictates of the ruthless "beauty myth". Undoubtedly, the book can turn out to be fascinating and useful for men as well, because in the process of its transformation, the myth involves them more and more in its sphere of influence, imposing sometimes harsh and senseless rules on them.
