The Beauty Myth (52 page)

Atwood, Margaret, 153

Auburn University study, 166

Austen, Jane, 60

Austin (Texas) Stress Clinic, 200

Australia, 298
n

eating disorders in, 183

incest in, 161

authority, clothes and, 44

“Babes in Makeup Land,” 215

Baby M. case, 235

Balin, Arthur K., 227, 228

Bangladesh, 190

divorce in, 117

banks, women officers in, 25

bank tellers, 50

Barbados, divorce in, 117

Barnard, Christiaan, 111

Barnard College, 138–139

Barnes
v.
Costle,
38

Barrett, Nancy, 23

Beaton, Cecil, 72

Beautiful Body Book, The,
237

beauty myth, beauty, 9–19, 270–291

behavior prescribed by, 14

biological, sexual, and evolutionary basis of, 12–13

cultural differences in, 12, 13

as currency system, 12, 20–21, 30

exportation of, 80

before Industrial Revolution, 14

internalization of, 84

introduction to, 9–19, 293
n
–296
n

male, 13, 295
n

politics of, 10–11, 16–17, 21

reinterpretation of, 286–287

sexual selection and, 12–13

sexual use of, 16, 21

as static thought, 17

story told by, 12

undoing of, 275–276

beauty pageants, 68, 80, 185, 267, 288

beauty pornography, 111, 125

cosmetic surgery and, 246, 248

eating disorders and, 213–214

sex and, 132–142, 145–152, 162–163, 175–176

beauty sadomasochism, 132, 133, 136–138, 140–142, 163

Beauvoir, Simone de, 174

Belgium, TV in, 80

Bell, Rudolph, 189

Berger, John, 58

Bergstrom, Mette, 193

BFOQ (a bona fide occupational qualification), 27–28

Big Lie, 177–178

Binet, Alfred, 176

blacks, identity of, 55–56

Blakely, Mary Kay, 81

blame, PBQ and, 43, 46–48

Blumenthal, Deborah, 112

body, body parts:

male vs. female, 93–95

mind vs., 59–60

selling of, 235

sense of, mental illness and, 230–231

see also specific topics

Bonds of Womanhood, The
(Cott), 91

Bordo, Susan, 88

Boston Globe
, 79

Boswell, John, 190

Botswana, 190

Breast Center, 242

breast-feeding, 226–227

breast implants, 211–212, 229, 241–242, 248, 268, 322
n

breast reduction surgery, 237–238

breasts, 138–139, 188

eroticizing of surgery on, 246

variations in, 246–248

Brighton Women and Science Group, 255

Brontë, Charlotte, 60

Brooks-Gunn, J., 196, 229, 320
n

Brown, Helen Gurley, 31, 304
n

Brown University, 166

Bruch, Hilde, 162, 183, 195

Brumberg, Joan Jacobs, 87–88, 92, 102, 182, 188, 193

bulimia, 181–183, 198, 208–209, 317
n
, 322
n

medical effects of, 183, 316
n

sex and, 193

theories of, 188–189

Bunny Image, 32–33, 298
n

Bureau of Labor Statistics, 50

Buren
v.
City of East Chicago
, 39

bus drivers, 49

bypass surgery, 261

Canada, 120, 159

pornography in, 79

cancer, 229, 237, 242, 322
n

Caputi, Jane, 136

Career Woman, 64–65

Carter, Rosalynn, 33

Cassell, Carol, 158–159

caste system, beauty and, 87

Catholic Church, medieval, 88–89, 100, 102, 254–255

Cavett, Dick, 212–213

cellulite, 227

censorship:

sex and, 134, 135–136, 138

women’s magazines and, 77–84

Chamber of Commerce, U.S., 53

Chandris, Eugenia, 226

Chase Manhattan Bank, 24

chemical peel, 237, 239–240, 255–256, 325
n

Chernin, Kim, 96, 124, 155, 182, 188, 318
n

Chicago, Judy, 139

childbirth, 218–219, 254–255, 267

death and, 102–103

child care, 26, 63

childhood, children, 15

cosmetics for, 215

radiance of, 104

sexual abuse of, 159, 160–161

working women with, 26

China:

Cultural Revolution in, 126

foot-binding in, 243

Chobanian, Susan, 242

choice:

beyond the beauty myth and, 273

cosmetic surgery and, 257–260

Chorlton, Penny, 82, 242

Ciano, Bob, 82

Cipollone, Rose, 229

Civil Rights Act (1964), Title VII of, 28, 38

Clément, Catherine, 224

clerical workers, 56

clitoridectomy, 243–245

clothes, 44, 67, 69, 273, 277

dress codes and, 39–40

harassment and, 38, 41, 43, 300
n

of men, 45, 46

clubs, magazines as, 74–75, 77

coal miners, 51–52

coercion, male vs. female view of, 259

Cole, Susan G., 138, 142, 163, 164, 167

Colombia, divorce in, 117

Columbia Journalism Review
, 77–78

comics, sex in, 137

“Coming Apart” (Walker), 149

Commentary
, 68

competition:

through beauty, 12–13, 14, 30, 56, 75, 76, 284–288

visual, 78–80

Complaints and Disorders
(English and Ehrenreich), 220–221

computer imaging, 83

Congress, U.S., 139, 240–241

consciousness, religion and, 86–87

consumerism, sexual, 143–144

contraception, 158–159, 219, 249

Victorian view of, 225–226

control:

beauty myth and, 10–11, 15–19, 49–50

employees’ lack of, 26

female invalidism and, 224

cosmetics, cosmetic industry, 11, 17, 39, 40, 41, 74, 81, 82, 99, 107–115, 118–121, 307
n

for children, 215

fetal tissue in, 120

prices of, 120–121

cosmetic surgery, 10, 11, 17, 55, 70, 105, 218, 220, 232–241, 250–264, 322
n
–327
n

addiction to, 238–239, 325
n

breast implants, 211–212, 229, 241–242, 248, 268

chemical peel, 237, 239–240, 255–256, 325
n

choice and, 257–260

ethics and, 234–239, 248–249

future of, 260–264

liposuction, 236–237, 238, 261–264

numbness and, 250–254

pain and, 255–257

postpartum breasts and, 227

profit and, 232–234

risks of, 236–238, 242, 261–264

Rites of Beauty and, 95

safeguards on, 239–241

self-hatred and, 232

Cosmopolitan
, 69, 72, 77, 266, 304
n

Costello, John, 62–63

Cott, Nancy, 91, 92

Cover-up
(Chorlton), 82

Craft, Christine, 35–38

Creation story, 93–95

creativity, 15, 29, 30

cults:

initiation into, 100–101

Rites of Beauty and, 88, 89, 106–128

weight-loss, 181, 185

Cults in America
(Appel), 107–108

culture, 58–85, 303
n
–308
n

general vs. mass, 70–71

heroines and, 59–61

transformation of, 277–280

women’s magazines and, 61–85

Culture of Narcissism, The
(Lasch), 130

currency, beauty as, 12, 20–21, 30

Dan Air, 40

dancers, anorexia of, 185

Darwin, Charles, 12–13, 294
n

Darwinism, beauty as, 236

deaths:

from anorexia, 182

in childbirth, 102–103

from cosmetic surgery, 236, 237, 238, 262–263

Rites of Beauty and, 102–103

from sexual surgery, 243, 244, 245

Denmark:

sex in, 147

working women in, 53

Denning, Lord, 40

Department of Trade and Industry, British (DTI), 113

Depo-Provera, 248–249

desire, 145, 200

fat and, 192–193

pain and, 220, 243

Diaz
v.
Coleman
, 39

diet industry, 11, 17, 69–70, 73, 84, 102, 295
n

diets, dieting, 67–68, 193–194

desire and, 193

eating disorders and, 196

FDA safeguards and, 240

femininity and, 200

obedience and, 187

preadolescent, 215

religion and, 88, 121–127

statistics on, 185

Dinner Party, The
(Chicago), 139

discrimination, 276–277

income, 52–53, 302
n

institutional, 115

job, 11, 21

sex, 27–28, 31–33, 35–41, 298
n

Disney, Anthea, 111

divorce, 115, 117, 144

domesticity, cult of, 14–16, 66, 91, 106, 169, 225, 272

beauty myth as replacement for, 10, 18

double standard:

of appearance, 34, 35, 48–52

for health, 230

medical, 239

oral appetite and, 98

Douglas, Ann, 92

dress codes, 39–40

drugs, 248–249, 268–269, 328
n

Dworkin, Andrea, 243, 254–255

eating, Rites of Beauty and, 88, 96–98, 121–127

eating disorders, 10, 11, 289, 316
n
–320
n

beauty pornography and, 213–214

see also
anorexics, anorexia; bulimia

Ebert, Roger, 136–137

economics:

beauty myth and, 13, 18, 56–57

free work and, 23

underpayment of women and, 18, 23–24

education, 24, 62

Ehrenreich, Barbara, 143, 162, 220–221, 233, 272

electric shock, 249–250

Eliot, George, 60

Ellis, Bret Easton, 168

Emma
(Austen), 60

Employment Appeal Tribunal, 39–40

Engels, Friedrich, 225

engineers, 25

English, Deirdre, 220–221, 233, 272

environmental crisis, 289

“Epithalamion” (Spenser), 59

Equal Employment Opportunity Act (1972), 33

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 31

Esquire
, 68

ethical investing, 234

ethics, medical, 234–239, 248–249

eugenics, 264–266

evolution, beauty myth and, 12–13

face-lifts, 260

faces, growing into, 231

Face Value
(Lakoff and Scherr), 213

Fahdl, Nancy, 39

Fahdy, Mohammed, 95

family, 14, 15

Famine Within, The
, 187

fantasy:

food, 195

rape, 137–138, 141, 162

sexual, 16, 137–138, 140–141, 163–164

fashion, fashion industry,
see
clothes

Fasting Girls
(Brumberg), 182, 317
n

fasts, liquid, 229

fatalism, 103

fathers, 168, 169

Fat Is a Feminist Issue
(Orbach), 188

fatness, fat, 191–193

in art, 184

health and, 186–187, 231–232

of men vs. women, 186, 192

as problem, 226

Faulkner, Wendy, 147, 151

Federal Trade Commission, 240

Fee, Ingrid, 33

Female Malady, The
(Showalter), 99, 250

Feminine Mystique, 12, 16, 18, 21, 64–67, 106, 200, 272–273

Feminine Mystique, The
(Friedan), 64–65, 168–169

“feminine wiles,” 46

femininity, 38–39, 91, 177, 211

business and, 42–44

dieting and, 200

feminism, 9–12

beauty myth as backlash against, 10–11, 15–19, 28, 66–72

in Eastern Europe, 80

love and, 142–143

Ugly Feminist caricature and, 18–19, 68–69, 208–209

undoing the beauty myth and, 276–282

weight control and, 184, 188, 196–197, 208–209

women’s magazines and, 66–72

work and, 31–33

Feminization of American Culture, The
(Douglas), 92

fetishism, 175

film, sex and, 136–137

Fischer, Seymour, 147

Fonda, Jane, 99

food, 188–191

guilt and, 96–98

social worth and, 189

as symbolic language, 188–189

see also
anorexics, anorexia; bulimia; diets, dieting; eating disorders; hunger

Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 109, 111–114, 239, 240, 261

“Food for Thought” (Wells), 118

food service workers, 50

foot-binding, 243

Fortune
, 25

Fragen, Ronald A., 95

France, 120, 137

liposuction in, 236–237

medieval, 190

TV in, 80

working women in, 21

freedom:

material, 10, 14–15

physical image as restraint on, 9–11, 16–17

social, 9–11

Freud, Sigmund, 175, 248

Friday, Nancy, 149

Friedan, Betty, 11, 12, 18–19, 64–67, 69, 72, 214

Frisch, Rose E., 192

Galbraith, John Kenneth, 18

Gay, Peter, 62, 68, 151

Gender and Stress
(Attie and Brooks-Gunn), 224, 229

generational collaboration, 283–284

Germany, Federal Republic of, pensions in, 54

Gilligan, Carol, 90

Ginsberg, Allen, 179

girdles, 214

Glamour
, 72, 185–186, 317
n

“Goblin Market” (Rossetti), 216

Goddess religions, 13

Goldstein, Al, 148

Goleman, Daniel, 17

GOQ (a genuine occupational qualification), 27, 39

Gordon, Mary, 173

grace, 103–104

Great Britain, 64, 117

anorexia and bulimia in, 183

cosmetic industry in, 112–113, 120

cosmetic surgery in, 240, 251

dieting in, 193

eating disorders in, 183

elderly women in, 54

food in, 191

GOQ in, 27, 39

incest in, 161

incomes in, 49

pornography in, 79, 163

rape in, 141–142, 159