The Beauty Myth

In the sixth chapter of this book, Wolf discusses one of the more significant consequences of the beauty myth: the relationship between mass consumer culture, commodified beauty, the cult of thinness, and serious psychological ailments like anorexia and bulimia. Wolf also provides historic parallels between psychological conditions from the Victorian era and the late 20th century. In her view, these issues stem from the oppression of women.

Wolf argues that “[u]p to one tenth of all young American women, up to one fifth of women students in the United States, are locked into one-woman hunger camps” (180). She argues that the statistics about anorexia death rates are not reliable, but it is one of the most damaging mental illnesses linked to toxic mass culture. The problem goes beyond anorexia because 60% of women have issues with food, and 25% of them are on diets (180).

The author blames the beauty myth and its Iron Maiden concept for this statistic. She finds parallels between obtaining the right to vote for women around 1920 and the beginning of dieting and thinness. The author also believes it is no coincidence that the ultra-thin 1960s model Twiggy, considered radical at the time, appeared when the contraceptive pill became available in the US.