Wolf vs. Valenti

The end of the Beauty Myth does in fact give me closure on the book. I found it refreshing that Wolf kind of summed up her ideas in the conclusion of the book and talked about how society could change their beauty standard ways. It makes me feel better knowing that she does have hope for our society, that we can change, if we allow women to be themselves, let them be human. Humans are sexual, humans need to eat, and humans need to feel beautiful and accepted. If our society allows our women to do these things freely and free of judgment, then our standards of beauty will change completely.
When comparing Wolf and Valenti, there are many similarities in the topics in which they choose to discuss in their essays. Valenti talks about plastic surgery in the same ways that Wolf does in Beauty Myth. It is quite interesting to read each of these books/essays and compare them not only in context but in the style of writing. This is also where they contrast the most. Jessica Valenti is very blunt, if you would, about the subject matter. She definitely didn’t place a censor on her language throughout her essay. Wolf on the other hand is much more conservative in her dialect in the Beauty Myth.
One common theme that I found in each reading was how women are basically killing themselves to get a perfect physical appearance. They strive to emulate the models that they see each day in the advertisements that are placed in front of them. The crazy diets and workout plans that some women place themselves under is literally killing them. Another theme that was entangled in each reading was how women are still looked at as being fragile, small little beings to take up less space in this world, where men are supposed to be big in order to take up more space. I think that my favorite topic that both women addressed was the one that said that no matter how much work women do, someone is going to claim that your success or failure is due to the way you look. I am not sure that anything has changed in our society that Valenti mentioned in her essay.
Personally, the most interesting essay from the Body Outlaw was the chapter on Culture simply because it talked about how women are affected by today’s society through such things as the fashion industry and how men look and act towards them. My favorite quote from this section was the one about how men stare at women; “Men look at women, women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only the relations of men to women, but the relation of women to themselves.” This statement is so true. If a woman feels that a man doesn’t think she is beautiful, she would do anything in her power to change her appearance so that he would find her more appealing. This is the problem with society today, women need to feel that they are beautiful no matter what men or society has to say about them.