Unmasking the beauty myth
September 3, 2006 | 12:00am
This Week’s Winner:
Arjorie Young-Laurel, MD, is a member of the Philippine Dermatological Society. She is married and has a boy and a girl. The family visits at least three bookstores a week, and each member of her family has his or her own library.
For those old enough to remember actress Bo Derek, you will remember that in the 1970s, she was viewed as having a face and body deserving a rating of a perfect "10." With the current standard for models who have to be 20-percent below the average weight, her rate would likely be a measly "6" today. And what people definitely will not accept is the fact that it is natural to gain weight as they age and that it is healthy to put on weight as long as it is not excessive. The result of all this bombardment of the subconscious is what author Naomi Wolf calls the obsessive pursuit of beauty, or as her book is entitled, The Beauty Myth.
This beauty myth has negative consequences on one’s self-esteem. Wolf could very well be writing about the Philippines when she says: "More women have more money and power and scope and legal recognition than we have ever had before; but in terms of how we feel about ourselves physically, we may actually be worse off than our unliberated grandmothers. Recent research consistently shows that inside the majority of the West’s controlled, attractive, successful working women, there is a secret ‘underlife’ poisoning our freedom; infused with notions of beauty, it is a dark vein of self-hatred, physical obsessions, terror of aging and dread of lost control."
It is incredible how much pain people are willing to endure just to be beautiful. People have gone on starvation diets, allocated a bulk of their economic resources to reverse aging and even damaged their relationships in the pursuit of some impossible ideal.
Never mind the clichés "Beauty comes from within," or "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Anyone who suggests that being beautiful does not have its advantages is simply being naive. Certainly, there is nothing wrong with being beautiful. In fact, it gives the person a certain level of self-confidence. Yet Wolf’s powerful book is a badly needed jolt to remind us that life must mean something more than just being a slave to how we women have been defined solely on what has become an impossible ideal.
Whenever I tell friends that they must be aware of the fact that the cosmetic and drug industries are allotting billions of dollars annually for advertisements just to get their target market to buy their products, many of which have no medical basis at all and may even be harmful to the skin, I tell them to get a copy of Wolf’s The Beauty Myth. What many people do not realize is that the advertising industry has become the main arbiter of what is chic, fashionable, beautiful and healthy.
An example of this is the discovery that alpha hydroxy acids and retinoic acid can eliminate fine wrinkles. Since then, the public has seen more advertisements about the necessity of removing such wrinkles to appear healthy. Then, these ads go one step further by implying that beauty is health.
I have nothing against these two agents. What is wrong is the subtle message that if you use these products, you will have healthy skin. Does it mean that if you don’t, your skin will not be as healthy? Of course not.
Aside from being unhealthy for a person’s emotional well-being, this obsessive pursuit of beauty is also very unhealthy physically. Take for instance how the dieting industry has influenced all sorts of eating disorders in adults, teenagers, and now even children. Many people are suffering from anorexia and bulimia.
This beauty business has become a giant industry. And just like what dermatologist Dr. Eileen Ringel wrote in the journal Dermatopathology: Practical and Conceptual, there is something very wrong if an establishment or dermatologist makes aging seem like a disease.
Naomi Wolf reminds us that the amount of money companies spend on advertising must be recovered somehow, and it usually will come from the buyers’ pocket. In these difficult times, loving oneself may just be the best way to save money and to stay healthy, which should be the primary goal of everyone. Instead of seeking the impossible, the best prescription a doctor could give in some cases is for patients to hold on to their wallet and to remind them that when it comes to meeting the standards of the "beauty myth," it is just that: a myth. I read Naomi’s books years ago, and have even mentioned it in an article I wrote for the medical society I belong to, and having read many books tackling the politics and economics that drive the advertising about what is beautiful (advertising that can easily be found in the glossy magazines that have become a part of our daily life), The Beauty Myth is still the best argument against buying into the trap of seeking the impossible. Wolf carefully records and convincingly argues that the beauty myth may just be the real plague ravaging our times.
Arjorie Young-Laurel, MD, is a member of the Philippine Dermatological Society. She is married and has a boy and a girl. The family visits at least three bookstores a week, and each member of her family has his or her own library.
For those old enough to remember actress Bo Derek, you will remember that in the 1970s, she was viewed as having a face and body deserving a rating of a perfect "10." With the current standard for models who have to be 20-percent below the average weight, her rate would likely be a measly "6" today. And what people definitely will not accept is the fact that it is natural to gain weight as they age and that it is healthy to put on weight as long as it is not excessive. The result of all this bombardment of the subconscious is what author Naomi Wolf calls the obsessive pursuit of beauty, or as her book is entitled, The Beauty Myth.
This beauty myth has negative consequences on one’s self-esteem. Wolf could very well be writing about the Philippines when she says: "More women have more money and power and scope and legal recognition than we have ever had before; but in terms of how we feel about ourselves physically, we may actually be worse off than our unliberated grandmothers. Recent research consistently shows that inside the majority of the West’s controlled, attractive, successful working women, there is a secret ‘underlife’ poisoning our freedom; infused with notions of beauty, it is a dark vein of self-hatred, physical obsessions, terror of aging and dread of lost control."
It is incredible how much pain people are willing to endure just to be beautiful. People have gone on starvation diets, allocated a bulk of their economic resources to reverse aging and even damaged their relationships in the pursuit of some impossible ideal.
Never mind the clichés "Beauty comes from within," or "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Anyone who suggests that being beautiful does not have its advantages is simply being naive. Certainly, there is nothing wrong with being beautiful. In fact, it gives the person a certain level of self-confidence. Yet Wolf’s powerful book is a badly needed jolt to remind us that life must mean something more than just being a slave to how we women have been defined solely on what has become an impossible ideal.
Whenever I tell friends that they must be aware of the fact that the cosmetic and drug industries are allotting billions of dollars annually for advertisements just to get their target market to buy their products, many of which have no medical basis at all and may even be harmful to the skin, I tell them to get a copy of Wolf’s The Beauty Myth. What many people do not realize is that the advertising industry has become the main arbiter of what is chic, fashionable, beautiful and healthy.
An example of this is the discovery that alpha hydroxy acids and retinoic acid can eliminate fine wrinkles. Since then, the public has seen more advertisements about the necessity of removing such wrinkles to appear healthy. Then, these ads go one step further by implying that beauty is health.
I have nothing against these two agents. What is wrong is the subtle message that if you use these products, you will have healthy skin. Does it mean that if you don’t, your skin will not be as healthy? Of course not.
Aside from being unhealthy for a person’s emotional well-being, this obsessive pursuit of beauty is also very unhealthy physically. Take for instance how the dieting industry has influenced all sorts of eating disorders in adults, teenagers, and now even children. Many people are suffering from anorexia and bulimia.
This beauty business has become a giant industry. And just like what dermatologist Dr. Eileen Ringel wrote in the journal Dermatopathology: Practical and Conceptual, there is something very wrong if an establishment or dermatologist makes aging seem like a disease.
Naomi Wolf reminds us that the amount of money companies spend on advertising must be recovered somehow, and it usually will come from the buyers’ pocket. In these difficult times, loving oneself may just be the best way to save money and to stay healthy, which should be the primary goal of everyone. Instead of seeking the impossible, the best prescription a doctor could give in some cases is for patients to hold on to their wallet and to remind them that when it comes to meeting the standards of the "beauty myth," it is just that: a myth. I read Naomi’s books years ago, and have even mentioned it in an article I wrote for the medical society I belong to, and having read many books tackling the politics and economics that drive the advertising about what is beautiful (advertising that can easily be found in the glossy magazines that have become a part of our daily life), The Beauty Myth is still the best argument against buying into the trap of seeking the impossible. Wolf carefully records and convincingly argues that the beauty myth may just be the real plague ravaging our times.
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