Asha

“Women are mere “beauties” in men’s culture so that culture can be kept male. When women in culture show character, they are not desirable, as opposed to the desirable, artless ingenue.”
― Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women

“The idea that a woman's body has boundaries that must not be violated is fairly new. We evidently haven't taken it far enough. Can we extend that idea? Or are women the pliable sex, innately dapted to being shaped, cut, and subjected to physical invasion? Does the female body deserve the same notion of integrity as the male body?”
― Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women

“Women’s writing is full ... of heartbreak with the injustices done by beauty—its presence as well as its absence.”
― Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women

“The woman wins who calls herself beautiful and challenges the world to change to truly see her. A woman wins by giving herself and other women permission - to eat; to be sexual; to age; to wear overalls, a paste tiara, a Balenciaga gown, a second-hand opera cloak, or combat boots; to cover up to to go practically naked; to do whatever we choose in following - or ignoring - our own aesthetic. A woman wins when she feels that what each woman does with her own body - unforced, uncoerced - is her own business.”
― Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women