Further, social pressures have added a third shift to women’s work: the beauty shift, womens’ exhaustive efforts to beautify themselves and the time and energy they lose to anxiety and obsession over their appearance. Wolf asserts that women have always been required to work two “shifts”: the work shift, and the (unpaid and under-recognized) home shift. “Work” explores womens’ roles in the modern workplace, and examines how much harder women are expected to work to compete with men. Wolf separates her writing into seven sections dedicated to specific facets of society. Wolf bases her writing on the premise of the “beauty myth”, the impossible standards of beauty to which women are expected to conform. Wolf’s purpose is clear from the start: to explore, document, and analyze the way that beauty ideals are used to control women. The Beauty Myth surpassed my expectations, proving itself to be poignant, relevant, and incredibly insightful. Though the book was originally published in 1991, its content remains saddeningly relevant. While some may presume the text to be a self-help book or superficial story, it is actually a blisteringly accurate, trenchant analysis of beauty ideals in the modern society. As women make more and more progress in society, Wolf contends, they are peddled more and more beauty products, rates of eating disorders continue to rise, the cosmetic surgery industry grows and culture increasingly reinforces impossible standards. Wolf argues that the myth of female beauty is used to actively oppress them, exploiting their insecurities and forcing them to spend enormous amounts of time and effort maintaining their looks. As women have gained more power and respect in society, Wolf asserts, beauty ideals have constricted in an effort to control them. Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth is a keystone work of the third-wave feminist movement and an incredibly important book for modern society.

The beauty myth book