Annotated Bibliography: The Beauty Myth By Naomi Wolf

There is a cliché quote that people say, “Beauty is in the eye of beholder.” But in the essay “The Ugly Truth About Beauty” (1998) Dave Barry argues about how women who spend countless hours on their so called “beauty” whereas men seem not to care. Barry uses juxtaposition and exaggeration to poke fun at men and women behavior and shed light on the harm that the beauty industry is doing. When Barry argues his point of his essay he addresses both genders, but more specifically teenage to middle age men and women, but he writes about it in a humorous and light-hearted manner.

The Panopticon is designed to entail a central tower where there can be main surveyor that keeps watch on the subordinates. Foucault describes it as, “He is seen, but he does not see” (Foucault 244). This quote describes the concept of the concrete Panopticon structure where the central power can see everyone; however, the subordinates cannot see each other nor can they see the central power. Foucault also states, “the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power” (Foucault 245). This quote is describing the purpose of the Panopticon and that is for the subordinate of the structure to internalize discipline due to the idea of possibly being watched, but not knowing when you are watched.

People have contributed to the physical and cultural view of beauty in societies all around the world. Each country has different beauty standards that reflect off of each other to display diversity: “Beauty is informed by values, culture, religion, background and societal influence. Concepts of beauty has change over time depending on environment, culture, etc”. Through the different standards of other cultures, societies are able to learn that there is not only one form of beauty. The evolution of beauty around the world allows people to compare opinions with another to form individual perspectives of beauty.

The basic premise of The Beauty Myth is that forced concordance to standards of physical beauty has grown stronger for women as they gained power in other societal fields. Wolf argues that this standard of beauty has taken over the work of social force formerly left to myths about motherhood, domesticity, and passivity, all of which have been used to keep women powerless. In the author’s view, the myth of beauty spreads the belief that an objective measurement of beauty exists, and that woman must want to embody it, and that men must want such women. However, Wolf argues that the beauty myth is really not all about women, it is also about men’s institutions and power.

In today’s society beauty is a very important component to everyone. In order to be liked you must be thin, pretty, and smart, and if you don’t possess one of these qualities then you must buy products that will help you achieve them. Women especially have to face these standards every day for the rest of their lives. The beauty myth is a way for the patriarchy to control women through power, control, and consumerism.

The author of the essay “Panopticism”, Michel Foucault gives his opinion on power and discipline in Panopticism. He describes Jeremy Bentham’s “Panopticon”, a tower in the centre of a room which has vision to every cell, generalized for prisoners. In simple words, it functioned in maintaining discipline throughout the jail. It’s most distinctive feature was that; prisoners could be seen without ever seeing. Prisoners would never really know when they are watched and when not. They are always under the impression that someone is keeping an eye on them continuously and if anything goes wrong, or they make mistake, they would be punished severely. Since, a prisoner would never know when he/she is watched, they have to be at their best. In a

     The Panopticon, a prison described by Foucault, “is a machine for dissociating the see/being seen dyad: in the peripheric ring, one is totally seen, without ever seeing” (321, Foucault). This literally means that in the formation of the panopticon those who are being seen can not see one another and the one who sees everything can never be seen. That is the most important tool of the panopticon. Foucault makes this assumption about today’s society by saying that we are always being watched whether we know it or not. One always keeps an eye over their shoulder as a

The panopticon is a prison with a big watch tower in the middle. It was built like this so the prisoners can be efficiently watched and guarded. The prisoners every move was watched and monitored. This was another way of punishment because they weren’t being punished physically, but mentally. The prisoner’s minds were being controlled, instead of their bodies. Foucault believes that modern society is the same way as the prison was run, maybe not to the same extreme, though. Everything is run by the state like for example, schools, hospitals, police stations, jobs, and many more.

Foucault believed that knowledge is a form of power, and that ultimately, through observation you gain power. This main idea allowed for him to realize that, once applied to the real world, knowledge is the most powerful tool one can have. It is evident that Foucault essentially believed that with knowledge, one can control everything around them. Furthermore, having the power to discipline and society. The concept of panopticism developed from the idea of disciplining society. The panopticon was an architectural design with the main purpose of being able to have visibility on everyone that was incarcerated. Prisoners were held in cells, which surrounded a main tower controlled by either a general guard, or the person who upholds the power.

In the book The Beauty Myth, the author, Naomi Wolf uses language that is very powerful, influential, and didactic. Her writing style was not very formal which i thought fit this book because it makes it easier to connect with the audience and get her arguments across. As i was reading this book there were times where i Wolf was right about our society and it gave me a sense of powerfulness. In her writing you can feel the power in her words even though she is arguing her power still shines through. For example when Wolf discussed our culture she says, “culture stereotypes women to fit the myth by flattening the feminine into beauty-without-intelligence or intelligence- without- beauty; women are allowed a mind or a body but not both.” (Wolf,

For Foucault (1975), a Panopticon is a building with a tower at the center from which it is possible to see each cell in which a prisoner or schoolboy is incarcerated. The tower is positioned in a manner that allows the guard sitting therein to view all of the prisoners within the surrounding cells without obstruction. Visibility is a trap. Each individual is seen by the guard but cannot communicate with them. The panopticon induces a sense of permanent visibility that ensures the functioning of power, an environment where one cannot escape the guard’s watchful eyes. It is all the more insidious as it is a power that is unverifiable. Although the prisoner can see the tower, they can never be certain if the guard is indeed observing them.

Every individual is seen however cannot communicate with the jailers or other detainees. The panopticon affects a feeling of perpetual visibility that guarantees the working of force. Bentham declared that power ought to be obvious yet unverifiable. The detainee can simply see the tower but never knows if he is being watched. The twentieth century French theorist Michel Foucault understood that that model could be utilized for detainment facilities as well as for each establishment that looks to control human conduct: schools, healing centers, work environments. Once more, Foucault said that this mentality, this system found by Bentham, was the key method for societal control for cutting edge, Western social orders, which no more need the plain weapons of oppression rebuffing or detaining or murdering nonconformists, or legitimately convincing dependability to a specific gathering on the grounds that mass observation makes a jail in the psyche that is a considerably more inconspicuous however a great deal more powerful method for encouraging consistence with social standards or with social conventionality, significantly more successful than forced power could ever

In his publication Discipline and Punish, French philosopher Michel Foucault expresses his thoughts on the panoptic scheme, and the panopticon itself that had previously incorporated into the Illinois State Penitentiary. In short, the panoptic scheme is one in which there is a central authority that can exert power over a multitude of individuals. This is made possible due to the central power being able to oversee all subjects constantly, while the subjects themselves will never know when they are being observed. Ergo, the panoptic scheme creates a system in which central power can be enforced by fewer amount of people, over a growing amount of subjects. Foucault realizes that to some this may appear to be tyrannical rule over all, but debates

This shows the phenomena how the women treat their body as the sex object for the men to attract the men attention through the practice to be beauty. Jeffreys (2005) argues that Beauty practices are necessary so that the sexes can be told apart, so that the dominant sex class can be differentiated from the subordinate one. She continues Beauty practices create, as well as

Women of today are fortunate because they are recognized and are more powerful compared to what they have to go through years ago. They are empowered and successful because they fought for their rights. However, writer and feminist Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women, is troubled. Her nonfiction book states that as women gain social power and prominence, they are expected to conform to society’s impossible standards of physical beauty.