Dear Reader:
I sadly announce the intellectual demise of one of the great feminist thinkers of our time. That being Naomi Wolf. Wolf climbed to fame with her acclaimed feminist classic “The Beauty Myth.” The book was published back in 1992, so let me refresh the reader with some of its brilliance.
In her book “Who Stole Feminism,” Christina Hoff Sommers reported that Wolf found that 150,000 women die each year in this country of anorexia nervosa. Sommers went on to observe that Wolf related: “that nothing justifies comparison with the Holocaust.” Then Sommers pointed out that Wolf went on to do just that by saying: “When confronted with a vast number of emaciated bodies starved not by nature but by men, one must notice a certain resemblance (Who Stole Feminism Christina Hoff Sommers, Simon and Shuster, p.11).”
Skeptics could point out that anorexia is a complicated illness and cannot be simple reduced to one factor. Several things are thought to contribute, such as genetics, stress, perfectionism, as well as social standards valuing thinness. Social standards of appearance being the ones that supports Wolf’s thesis. Her Wikipedia biography notes that Wolf contends that “beauty as a normative value is entirely socially constructed,” by the patriarchy: “with the objective to maintain women’s subjugation.” Face it guys, she is on to us.
Still, without denying looking good for men effects women’s habits, one could contend that the idea that these standards are even based on heterosexual men’s desires is problematic. Take the fashion industry as an example. Fashion designers tend to be women or gay men. Consumers of fashion shows are exclusively women. In addition, the women in these shows tend to be thinner than those portrayed in magazines consumed by men.
Clearly though women, the group that makes the vast majority purchases of female attire, are merely dupes of the patriarchy. As far as anorexia, what man is not attracted to the female “emaciated” bodies that Wolf mentions. In which female secondary sexual characteristics are barely discernible.
Naysayers of Wolf’s contentions could point out that not all anorexics are female. Are these males also starved by men? We also know that that for instance boys take steroids to get bodies that attract women. Certainly, this is less complex than what leads to anorexia. Still, would it not seem paranoid to say these boys are forced to take steroids by girls?
In an interview in 2019 Wolf related that: “The Beauty Myth traces how beauty ideals are used to keep women from having money and power (30 years on from The Beauty Myth we ask Naomi Wolf ‘what’s ..)” Those of us like myself who have had the experience of being gainfully employed, know this is the goal of workplaces across America. However, would not it be better to set beauty standards for women to be fat rather than thin? That would mean women would spend more on food and fashion, not to mention cosmetics to cover fat faces and thus making companies more money and more important, keep women further from wealth.
There is an easy answer to why they do not. The patriarchy a group with the mind-boggling ability to determine beauty standards and to con billions of women into adhering to them, are stupid. They are men. Thus, the smarter sex mindlessly follows current fashions determined by this intellectual inferior group. Except of course Naomi Wolf.
Let me mention another minor issue with Wolf’s thesis that people make a big deal about. It turns out 150,000 was not those who died from the anorexia but those who suffered from it. Studies showed that deaths per-year from anorexia were under a hundred people per-year. Although Sommers estimated that around 100 to 400 died of anorexia nervosa per year (Sommers, ibid p12). In addition, Caspar Schoemaker “published a paper in the academic journal Eating Disorders demonstrating that of the twenty-three statistics cited by Wolf in Beauty Myth, eighteen were incorrect. (Wolf Wikipedia cite).”
Wolf corrected the 150,00 statistics in later additions, while still maintaining that the themes of her book are valid. Despite the minor errors, the book is still considered to be a feminist classic.
As far as the contention that Wolf meant women were starved by men. I am sure she did not. I think. So let me take on all the criticisms above in order. I find them to be, not valid, not valid, not valid, not valid, not valid, not valid, not valid, not valid, not valid, not valid, and lastly, not valid.
In her next book “Fire with Fire,” Wolf, the women the who pointed out that women are starved by men, urged women to reject victim feminism. Is there anything inconsistent about that? No.
Wolf has not limited her insights to gender issues. About her book “The End of America,” journalist Alex Beam observed: “In the book Wolf insists she is not equating George (W] Bush with Hitler, nor the United States with Nazi Germany, then proceeds to do just that (ibid, Wolf Wikipedia). Wolf’s words take on extra significance in this regard, since she is from a Jewish background herself.
Now things have changed. Many of those enamored with her genius cited above, feel she “has gone off the rails.” This is based on some bizarre theories she has exposed regarding the covid nineteen vaccines.
The title of an article in “The Atlantic,” written by feminist Helen Lewis, said it well: “From Feminist to Right-wing Conspiracists.” Could the women who taught us that men are starving women and was cited as comparing George W Bush with the man who tried to exterminate the Jews, have become paranoid?
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