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 press doesn't stop publishing, by the way, in a fascist escalation; it simply watches what it says. That too can be an incremental process, and the pace at which the free press polices itself depends on how journalists are targeted.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The press may continue to operate under oppressive regimes, but it tends to self-censor based on the risks faced by journalists.
Naomi Wolf highlights that in fascist or oppressive contexts, the press does not cease its functions; rather, it alters its communication to align with the dangers posed to journalists. This self-regulation indicates the influence of external pressures on the media, showcasing how its integrity is tested in the face of threats.
Themes
PressFreedomSelf-CensorshipJournalismFascism
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about media freedom, one might use this quote to illustrate the challenges journalists face in oppressive regimes.
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.
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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.
Naomi WolfRead
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