Feminism and Violent Sex
Wolf draws a connection between the rise of feminism, women’s rights and gender equality in the 1970’s and the subsequent intensifying of the connection between sexuality and violence, beginning the transformation of the point of view from victim to killer in slasher movies to draw a profoundly complex metaphor:
“It is as if, in an ambiance of violent heterosexual imagery, the young have retreated into a dull, aching sexual estrangement that is beyond warfare; more like daily life in a militarized town, in which civilians and soldiers have little more to say to one another.”
Health Care Complicity
Wolf proves that even the health care industry—which should by all accounts know better—is complicity in the myth as part of the machinery that makes it work. A quote loaded with metaphor from Dr. Arthur K. Balin, president of the American Aging Association, almost defies belief because Balin is actually being completely literal in his sincerity:
“it would benefit physicians to look upon ugliness not as a cosmetic issue but a disease.”
Survival not to be Fattest
The author calls upon a particularly powerful metaphor to reveal the hollow foundation upon which the beauty is constructed by its engineers and pursued by its exploited victims:
“The myth rests on the fallacy that beauty is a form of Darwinism, a natural struggle for scarce resources”
The Resonant Metaphor
The myth exists, but that does not mean it can’t be changed. A hope for the future also becomes a philosophical pondering of political will in the form of a metaphor that subtly resonates with topic under discussion:
“Democracy, we know, is a living, vulnerable thing that every generation must renew. The same goes for that aspect of democracy represented by feminism.”
The Beauty Myth: Defined
Wolf does not leave one wondering what she means by the “beauty myth” long. Two pages in and metaphor does the job:
“We are in the midst of a violent backlash against feminism that uses images of female beauty as a political weapon against women’s advancement: the beauty myth.”
