Why does the social order feel the need to defend itself by evading the fact of real women, our faces and voices and bodies, and reducing the meaning of women to these formulaic and endlessly reproduced "beautiful" images? Though unconscious personal anxieties can be a powerful force in the creation of a vital lie, economic necessity practically guarantees it. An economy that depends on slavery needs to promote images of slaves that "justify" the institution of slavery. Western economies are absolutely dependent now on the continued underpayment of women. An idealogy that makes women feel "worth less" was urgently needed to counteract the way feminism had begun to make us feel worth more. This does not require a conspiracy; merely an atmosphere. The contemporary economy depends right now on the representation of women within the beauty myth. Naomi Wolf
About This Quote

In the early 20th century, there was a rise in women's personal freedoms and it was a time of change. Women had been given the right to vote and to attend college, they were becoming more active in society. This is a time when most people would expect women to experience joy and happiness, but for many women this was not the case at all. Many women were unhappy with this new found freedom and were looking for a way to become happy again.

It seems that there were many different factors at play here. First, many of these women were working class girls who had never known anything but poverty and hard work. Not only that, but they wanted something different than what life had handed them.

They wanted to be happy and they wanted to find their own individual happiness. As the years went on, many young women began to realize this idea of personal freedom and began fighting for it, not only for themselves but for all women as well.

Source: The Beauty Myth

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