harun el rashid reviewed The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf
Review of 'The Beauty Myth' on 'GoodReads'
3 stars
honestly some of the insights are helpful. i think a lot of trans exclusive works that try to talk about gender dynamics actually suffer a lot theoretically from failing to consider trans examples. Wolf unpacks how the pressure to be beautiful affects cisgender women in their work life, in culture, and in their self image. But one thing that is not adequately unpacked is how gender itself is defined and policed by the idea of beauty. This is a situation where a consideration of trans lives is important. Wolf mentions how the pressure to perform beauty properly is enforced by violence, but how does that pressure manifest differently if you are a woman who is 6' tall and has 5 o'clock shadow? How does the pressure to perform beauty manifest differently in trans men or nonbinary people, or intersex people for that matter? Beauty, and the hang ups people have …
honestly some of the insights are helpful. i think a lot of trans exclusive works that try to talk about gender dynamics actually suffer a lot theoretically from failing to consider trans examples. Wolf unpacks how the pressure to be beautiful affects cisgender women in their work life, in culture, and in their self image. But one thing that is not adequately unpacked is how gender itself is defined and policed by the idea of beauty. This is a situation where a consideration of trans lives is important. Wolf mentions how the pressure to perform beauty properly is enforced by violence, but how does that pressure manifest differently if you are a woman who is 6' tall and has 5 o'clock shadow? How does the pressure to perform beauty manifest differently in trans men or nonbinary people, or intersex people for that matter? Beauty, and the hang ups people have around it, tell us a story about more than the domination and objectification of women (though that is part of the story). It tells a story about how gender is created, performed, and enforced.
