Asha

“At least a third of a woman's life is marked with aging; about a third of her body is made of fat. Both symbols are being transformed into operable condition--so that women will only feel healthy if we are two thirds of the women we could be. How can an "ideal" be about women if it is defined as how much of a female sexual characteristic does not show on her body, and how much of a female life does not show on her face?”
― Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women

“The Victorian woman became her ovaries, as today's woman has become her "beauty.”
― Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women

“As soon as a woman's primary social value could no longer be defined as the attainment of virtuous domesticity, the beauty myth redefined it as the attainment of virtuous beauty. It did so to substitute both a new consumer imperative and a new justification for economic unfairness in the workplace where the old ones had lost their hold over newly liberated women.”
― Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women

“A man is unlikely to be brought within earshot of women as they judge men's appearance, height, muscle tone, sexual technique, penis size, personal grooming, or taste in clothes--all of which we do. The fact is that women are able to view men just as men view women, as objects for sexual and aesthetic evaluation; we too are effortlessly able to choose the male "ideal" from a lineup and if we could have male beauty as well as everything else, most of us would not say no. But so what? Given all that, women make the choice, by and large, to take men as human beings first.”
― Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women