A culture fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women’s history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.
Naomi WolfRead
The beauty myth moves for men as a mirage; its power lies in its ever-receding nature. When the gap is closed, the lover embraces only his own disillusion.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the unattainable nature of beauty and the resulting disillusionment when expectations are confronted with reality.
Naomi Wolf's quote delves into the concept of the 'beauty myth', suggesting that societal standards of beauty create an illusion that is perpetually out of reach for men. This ever-receding mirage leads to a disconnection when they realize that their fantasies of beauty do not align with reality, ultimately resulting in personal disillusionment rather than true fulfillment.
Themes
BeautyIllusionDisillusionmentSocietyExpectations
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about societal pressures, one might say, 'As Naomi Wolf suggests, the beauty myth can lead to disillusionment when expectations meet reality.'
More from Naomi Wolf
All quotes →Looking back on 200 years of feminist agitation in this country, we've got to get it that the moral high ground doesn't get us anything. Pleading with powerful men never gets us what we need. Talking doesn't do it. Being right doesn't do it. Hardball politics does it ... and a political strategy.
Naomi WolfRead
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 them.
Naomi WolfRead
The woman wins who calls herself beautiful, and challenges the world to change to fit her vision.
Naomi WolfRead
Our society does reward beauty on the outside over health on the inside. Women must not be blamed for choosing short-term beauty "fixes" that harm our long-term health, since our life spans are inverted under the beauty myth, and there is no great social or economic incentive for women to live a long time.
Naomi WolfRead
Peaceful, lawful protest - if it is effective - IS innately disruptive of “business as usual.” That is WHY it is effective.
Naomi WolfRead
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