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 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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
As women gain more rights, societal standards of beauty become increasingly oppressive.
Naomi Wolf's quote suggests that as women make progress in overcoming legal and material obstacles, they simultaneously face a heavier and more stringent burden of societal expectations regarding beauty. This paradox highlights how advancements in women's rights can often lead to an intensified focus on physical appearance, creating a dual pressure that can affect their self-image and societal roles.
Themes
WomenBeautySocietyPressureExpectations
In practice
Example use cases
Speaking at a women's rights rally to highlight the ongoing struggle against beauty standards.
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.
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The woman wins who calls herself beautiful, and challenges the world to change to fit her vision.
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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.
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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.
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Peaceful, lawful protest - if it is effective - IS innately disruptive of “business as usual.” That is WHY it is effective.
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