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 womenβs history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.
Naomi WolfRead
A cultural fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience.
Interpretation
This quote critiques societal standards that equate female beauty with thinness, highlighting issues of control and compliance.
Naomi Wolf's quote suggests that the societal emphasis on female thinness goes beyond a mere appreciation of beauty; it reflects a deeper cultural demand for women's compliance and obedience. In this context, the obsession with thinness serves as a mechanism to enforce conformity and restrict women's autonomy, ultimately impacting how they view themselves and their roles in society.
In practice
In a discussion on body image during a women's empowerment workshop.
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 womenβs history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.
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.
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.
The woman wins who calls herself beautiful, and challenges the world to change to fit her vision.
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.
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.
Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.
The center that I cannot find is known to my unconscious mind.
Economic disasters or foolish wars are hardly guaranteed to bring about large-scale individual self-examination or renew the appeal of truly participatory democracy.
He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.
Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
In the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. This is what makes American what it is.
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