Literature Review

The Beauty Myth – Naomi Wolf

The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf centres around the modern myth that women feel they must be beautiful which Wolf believes is composed of ‘emotional distance, politics, finance and sexual repression’ (Wolf 1990). Her book, published in 1990 reveals what is wrong with the myth of being beautiful.

After an introductory chapter, the book focuses on how the beauty myth stems from and effects work, culture, religion, sex, hunger and violence. Each topic is a chapter in the book in which Wolf talks in depth about how the way women feel they must appear comes from these areas. For example, Wolf believes that despite the sexual revolution in the 1970’s stemming from second-wave feminism, women still feel they should be submissive against men to appear desirable. The book is set out so that, piece by piece, she discovers why women today are taken over by their obsession with physical appearance, which Wolf, in her chapter entitled Violence, believes is destructive and dangerous and women voluntarily put themselves through pain to achieve the unattainable perfection.

Wolf, a feminist and social critic may have written the book with other feminists in mind whether they have lived through the second feminist wave of the 1970s or not. The book also could have been written to inspire women who were not aware of modern inequality and the problems women face today because of the need to feel beautiful. From an academic point of view the book is useful to my project as it outlines the inequalities that women still face in today’s society. The way Wolf lays out the pressure women feel to be beautiful gives a clear picture of the gender stereotypes that post-modern feminists believe are socially constructed and hold both men and women back from true equality. Women are conditioned to believe they should be beautiful, no matter the costs whilst men are told they are acceptable as they are, creating a society where women can never be equal because they can never be content with themselves. This is very important for wanting to look further into post-modern feminism for my dissertation.

Gender and The Media – Rosalind Gill

Gill explores how gender is reflected and constructed in Gender and The Media. The book aims to explore ‘how the media today construct femininity, masculinity and gender relations’ (Gill 2007, pg. 1) After a chapter explaining how the book will be useful and setting out what the author will talk about, Gill goes through how gender is constructed and interpreted in different forms of media from advertising to film. Gill explains how in modern society sexism still exists and feminist ideas have a huge range despite many people believing that feminism is no longer relevant. Gill has three main ideas she wishes to explore throughout the book: To analyse the contemporary representation of gender and how the medias representation of gender has changed; The tools that are available to analyse the media’s representations, questioning whether the feminist ideas of the 1970s are still relevant to the society we face today; and to investigate what forms of political or cultural intervention are appropriate to challenge the constructions of gender.

Gill seems to have written the book not from a specific, individual viewpoint, but rather taking an unbiased stand point to overview the entire topic. The book successfully unpicks all aspects of media and the way gender and other issues such as race are interpreted in them. This means the text is useful in gaining knowledge on the subject without being swayed by the authors own opinions and views on the topic. The book is extremely useful in interpreting the place of women in the media, especially from a post-modern feminist standing as it unravels the norms and problems that the media enhances with the gender constructs of our society and will therefore be very useful in my dissertation focussing on post-modern feminism. Particularly useful to my project is the detailed analysis of Bridget Jones’ Diary. Gill explores how the issues of class, race and sexuality are dealt with and whether the text depicts any new gender relations and where it lies in terms of feminist principles. This use of a case study to explain Gill’s understanding of gender constructs helps explain her points and gives a good example of how to view a film for academic purposes.

Representing Women – Myra Macdonald

Another text that talks about the media but more closely focuses on women and femininity is Representing Women by Myra Macdonald. The book focuses on what we mean by femininity and links the rise of consumerism to the modern representation of women. She argues that ‘when women complain about the lack of realism in the media’s representation of themselves, they are criticizing the lack of diversity in portraying and defining women’s lives and desires’ (Macdonald 1995, pg. 3)

After its introduction the book has two main sections. The first explores what we mean by femininity and looks at what influences have sustained myths on what being female means. The second half of the text analyses four main feminine myths: femininity as enigmatic and threatening, as nurturing and caring, myths around women’s sexuality and finally their bodies. Macdonald says that in the last two points she sees the biggest gap opening up between women’s experience and how the media constructs them.

Macdonald seems to have written this book in mind of other feminists like herself, or people who are aware of the inequality in the way women are represented in the media. There seems to be a strong feeling throughout that the media doesn’t represent women as it should and that it shows only a narrow view of women, forcing them into stereotypes instead of letting them occupy whatever spheres they fit into personally. The most useful element of the book to me is the history of how women are interpreted in films, from the housewife position of the 1940s to the films that are directed by the male gaze of the modern era. Macdonald unpicks the typecasts women are forced to inhabit making it extremely useful in the representation of women in society and gives a good background in media through the ages to support any assumptions made now in post-modern feminism.

All three authors talk about the inequality that women face in society, with Macdonald and Gill focusing specifically on the media and Wolf focusing on many aspects of life. All three texts have ideas that link to the post-modern feminist theories on gender which will greatly help inform my dissertation.

Word Count - 1094

Reference List

Gill, R (2007) Gender and the media. Cambridge. Polity Press.

Macdonals, M (1995) Representing women. Myths of femininity in the popular media. Great Britain. Edward Arnold.

Wolf, N (1990) The Beauty Myth: how images of beauty are used against women. New York. Perennial.