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Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women
Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women | Naomi Wolf
125 posts | 59 read | 5 reading | 122 to read
The bestselling classic that redefined our view of the relationship between beauty and female identity.In today's world, women have more power, legal recognition, and professional success than ever before. Alongside the evident progress of the women's movement, however, writer and journalist Naomi Wolf is troubled by a different kind of social control, which, she argues, may prove just as restrictive as the traditional image of homemaker and wife. It's the beauty myth, an obsession with physical perfection that traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society's impossible definition of "the flawless beauty."
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JuliaTheBookNerd
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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These are some of the books I used to write my senior thesis about Buffy The Vampire Slayer and whether she is the feminist icon our society believes her to be (Note: I absolutely love Buffy and I‘m a huge fan but there is a lot about the show that is harmful to young girls about beauty) I remember having an amazing discussion with my class when I presented my thesis.

#DiscussionBook 💅🏻👙💝👠💋 #MayMontage 🥳💐♊️

#BookNerd 🤓💙📚

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Awesome 👏🏻 2y
LazyLibrary I love Buffy ❤️ the discussions on this show prove to be endless! 2y
Eggs Excellent 👌🏼 2y
63 likes3 comments
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squishmallowbb
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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I guess I won't be getting any reading in tonight

review
ICantImReading
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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Pickpick

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I think any woman (or man) would benefit from reading this feminist classic, although with a critical eye. I highlighted so many illuminating passages about the ways “The Beauty Myth” traps women for political and financial reasons and paused many times to reflect on my own experiences. It‘s also a dense and dated read, with some questionable claims and potentially flawed statistics. (Continued in comments.)

ICantImReading I would love to read something analyzing the evolution of this myth in the 30+ years since this was first written - how has the internet, social media, etc. further impacted the relationship between beauty and the female identity? The call for women‘s righteous indignation and empowerment holds up today. 3y
37 likes1 stack add1 comment
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GatheringBooks
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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Emilymdxn
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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I wasn‘t sure what to post for this #bfcr2 photo challenge, i thought ‘self help‘ and I don‘t read those. Then I thought of books that made me want to develop the mental health, confidence and energy to lead a meaningful life.

Fitness and self love will give me the energy to live a life that‘s good for the world and demonstrates how you can love your body healthily for ppl who need it 💖 easier to change the world if you don‘t get out of breath

Megabooks Great choices! I want to read The Beauty Myth. 5y
KathyWheeler I loved The Beauty Myth. 5y
gchicago Want to read No Logo 5y
55 likes2 stack adds5 comments
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ImpliedNonsense
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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Sometimes I get too cold inside so I just have sit on the porch for a little while 💕

Slajaunie Love your nails! I wish I could sit outside. It is in the 90‘s here with humidity that could kill. Enjoy your reading! 5y
ImpliedNonsense @Slajaunie thank you! Yeah I wouldn‘t sit outside if I were you either! Luckily it was kind of a rainy day so not that hot here ☺️ 5y
13 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Centique
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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#maymoviemagic #youngandbeautiful

I read this when I was #young and it made me think differently about the perceived need to be #beautiful. Probably very outdated now - it‘s nearly 30 years old - but back then, this was the first voice I‘d heard questioning the way women were represented in media etc.

I am so so #backlist, I‘m like a deep sea diver for books 😂😂

Liz_M "deep sea diver" Nice! ? 6y
Cinfhen I‘m amazed your memory still holds up! #Impressive 🙌🏻❣️ 6y
GingerAntics Actually, it‘s still remarkably relevant. The situation she talks about is worse now and it‘s on men now too in more ways, but this still holds up. 6y
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Centique @GingerAntics that‘s good to know. 6y
RohitSawant Wonderful post! And "deep sea diver" is so true ? 6y
75 likes2 stack adds7 comments
review
GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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Mehso-so

FAIR WARNING: UNPOPULAR OPINION AHEAD
2.5🌟
I skipped portions of this book because it was mind numbing and repetitive. Not all women wear make up. Not all women want plastic surgery. Plastic surgery is NOTHING like FGM or Nazi medical experiments because one is voluntary and two are not. 🙄 I felt like this book wasn‘t even about me most of the time, because I haven‘t confirmed to most of this since 7th grade. (cont‘d below)

GingerAntics This book is somehow dated and jumping the gun simultaneously. She‘s apparently unaware of the women‘s tax (that‘s existed since the invention of the tampon and store bought pads) and pregnancy as a preexisting condition (which existed when this was written). She claimed at one point there was no longer a double standard between men and women. (cont‘d below) 6y
GingerAntics She seems entirely unaware that this only applies to patriarchal societies and that other types of societies did, do, and will continue to exist. There are non-patriarchal religions that are the opposite of what she describes here. She forgets that some women enjoy working out. She ignores that some women enjoy doing their make up and do it for fun. She seems clueless that some women have a passion for fashion. (Cont‘d below) 6y
GingerAntics I feel this book could have been about half the length and still made all of the points. Some of the points were horribly made. Female perfection has only existed for the last 180 years? Seriously? What about Medieval women having to gaze longingly at images of their husbands while pregnant (to turn the homunculus into a boy child? The idea of female perfection is as old as patriarchal societies. (cont‘d below) (edited) 6y
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GingerAntics A book that dove deeper into women‘s relationships with food and how that is effected by society, patriarchy, tradition, etc could be created from the chapter on that subject. It might be better organised as such, too. The later chapters droned on. It was painful - just as painful and stereotyping as The Feminine Mystique (no I‘m not a fan of that book either). This book, too, looked at ONE version of womanhood as right and the rest wrong. 6y
GingerAntics I was also waiting the whole book for a positive view of men. I have to say, #notallmen. I‘d like to thank @Exbrarian for his candid discussion and honestly about parts of this book. He‘s clearly one of the good ones...which exist nowhere in this book but do exist out in the wilds of life. Just saying. #thebeautymyth #naomiwolf #unpopularopinion (edited) 6y
Amandajoy Thank you for the review. I started reading this on a while back, and while I agreed with some things, there were a lot of things I got frustrated with, so I ended up putting it down. If you find that book on women‘s relationship to food & diet culture, let me know! I liked Body Respect by Linda Bacon & I have this one on my TBR 6y
Exbrarian Thanks for the vote of confidence. I feel obliged to admit I have not always been one of the “good ones” I was raised in the American South where casual racism and misogyny are normalized and re-enforced. I‘m certain there are women in my past who would not think of me as a “good one.” I‘m still learning to be a better person all the time. Reading books and discussing them is a great pathway to a improving oneself. 6y
GingerAntics @Amandajoy oh both of those sound interesting. I‘ll have to look into them. 6y
GingerAntics @Exbrarian oh I moved to the south, from the north when I was 13. I definitely noticed the difference. At least you‘ve learned there is another way. Books are great for that. When we got here all anyone told me about was “all the southern gentleman,” but that trope is really misogyny. It‘s weird, and most people don‘t see that. (edited) 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder @julesG we had some great conversations about the good parts of this book, but I just want to take out of few parts (and maybe add a few others). 🤷🏼‍♀️ 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics I'm wanting to read this book but I don't know if my tolerance will handle it. I got annoyed reading Anna Karenina because of how unfair it was towards Anna (even though she did wrong) lol 6y
julesG I will not read this book. I'm quite sure I'd shake my head, give in to face-palm moments and eventually throw it out. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG it‘s was skip chunks or quit for me, so I know what you mean. I‘m glad I didn‘t have to read it for school because then I would have spent money on it. @OleAnder oh I can‘t stand Books like that. I guess I can remove Anna Karenina from my TBR. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics I loved the book though! Worth reading still. If you like those type of books obviously. But in the way she got treated for what she did was just unfair. Leaving a husband that does not appreciate you is not a crime!! Even if he wasn't suchh an a-hole. I could talk about it for hours. I best stop. Lol. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder oh yeah, would not get through that. Thanks for the heads up. It‘s almost like how much I hated the scarlet letter as a kid. Everyone else in my class loved it. 🙄 I was the one kid in Catholic school suggesting the Priest should have been held responsible for his actions. I almost got detention when I questioned if it was consensual. lol 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics Lol, not the wisest choice! You've been running after truth and justice from a young age then. Must not have been fun, huh? How hard it is now! Haha. Have you read any other books that just make you mad? 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder almost every book in this crusades class I took. Not my favourite time period for starters, and I‘m not a huge fan of “holy wars” personally. Every book was either dry as hell or nothing more than rhetoric trying to prove god was on their side and not the other. The Feminine Mystique really annoyed me for similar reasons to this one. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics I'm not at all religious so that would have probably made me bang my head multiple times lol, good on you for doing it! I am not sure if I read anything close to that. I should probably educate myself more on those subjects 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder it‘s remarkably like the moderne war between Christianity and Islam. It‘s literally the same fight that‘s never quite ended. I couldn‘t do all the excessive testosterone and posturing. It was ridiculous. I did find out at one point there were three popes at one time, though. That was kind of interesting. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics Lol, least you learned something new! Always something. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder I think even stuff you hate, if you look at what you‘ve read, you‘ve learned something...if nothing else you‘ve learned you don‘t like an author or a genre or something. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics Oh, that's true. Always gathering knowledge huh. It makes sucky stuff manageable with that mindset 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder exactly. I‘ve always been the one to ask difficult questions. You should have seen me in catholic school sex Ed in 5th grade. I made the teacher almost swallow his tongue. 😇 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics Oh gosh. That I'd have liked to see! You seem to me to be the person to read the rules but then break them. Lol 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder 😏 why ever do you think that?! lol The book said god hates sex so much, he turns away when people have it so you should do it as little and as fast as possible. I raised my hand and said “didn‘t god make everything?” He said yes. I asked, “didn‘t god say everything was good?” He said yes. I said, “then either that or this book is lying.” He didn‘t know what to do with that. 🤣😂🤣 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder and yes, a man thought the boys and the girls sex ed because he was the fifth grade religion teacher. 🙄 Because clearly the other fifth grade teacher, a woman, and the BIOLOGY teacher certainly wouldn‘t know the first thing about the subject. Catholic school is a WEIRD place sometimes. Pretty good education, though. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics 😂😂 you got a point though! I always wondered if sex was so bad, why did God even made it happen? Could he not have found another way for us to reproduce? Lol. Anyway, how do they know God hates sex sooo much? I never understood it. Everyone seem to know what He likes, dislikes, wants and needs, etc. They add new stuff to it everyday. These days I just see God becoming another word for Hate. 6y
AlaSkaat I respect others religions. Religion should be smthing to help you get through life, for without faith life has no meaning. But some people go too far with it lol 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics I am proud you survived it! I heard many people talk how strict it actually is haha 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder and when I said that to him, he nearly swallowed his tongue. “If it‘s so bad, why didn‘t he make babies come from somewhere else?” I was 10. That was me as a child in a nutshell. lol oh I totally agree with you. People justify their anger and their hate and their aggression because “it‘s what god wants.” Depending on who you ask, god wants completely contradictory things. It‘s total madness. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder maybe because I grew up in a catholic home, on a catholic community, surrounded by catholic people, I didn‘t really see it being really strict. In fact, when we moved across the country and I had to go to public school, my new school felt like total chaos to me. I‘d never seen anything like it. First day of school I saw my first fist fight, my first hicky, and my first pregnant teenager. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder I went home and begged to be sent to boarding school. No lie. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics Yeah. People use God to make their opinion have more value. Quite ridiculous. It's this stuff that makes me scream. Ignorance! Wow. That must have been a shock! Did it take long to get accustomed to it? I grew up in a Catholic country but except some weird rules and remarks, it wasn't so bad. One priest bad mouthed my aunt because she was pregnant and without marriage (tragedy!) and would not let her daughter have her communion. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder I was that daughter, actually. They didn‘t keep me from first communion or any of that stuff. 🤷🏼‍♀️ EXACTLY!!! People use god to make their own BS seem legit. It drives me nuts. I have a theory that gods want human sacrifice of one kind or another and goddesses want prosperity or relationship. I‘m working on figuring out if it‘s true or not. It took me a while. In some ways I never adjusted and never fit in. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder I went from a school where you had to get a certain number of points (based on the books you read outside of class and their difficulty) in order to get an A or a B or a C in English. The new school had 8th graders (13/14 year olds) watching schoolhouse rocks and movies. It was a shock. People don‘t read here the way they did back home. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics That's crazy, honestly. And that is interesting. If you find out, let me know!! 😂 yeah. A big change like that is never easy to get used to. But you managed well, I hope?? And not many people actually read. Well, I thought so until I found Litsy!! 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder I sure will. I‘m not entirely sure where to look, but I‘ve got a few sources to get me started. Litsy renewed my faith in people reading!!! I‘m so glad I stumbled upon Litsy. I guess, I‘m shocked that people can get college degrees and have never read a whole book. Reading was/is required back home. It‘s just not here. I don‘t get it. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics I'm glad! Yeah, that's very strange. I don't know where they get their knowledge from! Unless they have a mentor that teaches them EveryThing, then how the? Where is back home? 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder Minnesota is home. Texas is here. So I went quite literally from one end of the country to the other, but managed to stay in the same time zone. lol MN even went as far as to reject the Common Core for reading, because it wold have actually downgraded the standards they already had. Loved it. 💙💙💙 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics Ohh, I've wanted to go to Texas for years now! Ahh that's awesome 😊 haven't heard much about Minnesota tbh. I just know it exists! Lol 6y
julesG The more I read the comments, the happier I am having grown up and living in Europe. There are a lot of things that are soooo different from your experiences. - - - re: religion. I was born in the GDR. After the Berlin Wall fell, we were allowed to get religious education, go to church openly, etc. I wasn't raised in a religious family, but went to RE (protestant) with my school mates. One of the first questions I asked our female teacher... 6y
julesG ... was, why women couldn't become pope. She then explained that women were not equal to men and that such an important position could only be held by a man. I did not go to RE for a very long time after that. I asked too many unpopular questions and according to my parents I was quite the feminist at age 10/11. Also don't get the religious wars. And I am a historian among other things. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder Texas is a bit backwards. They often times don‘t believe in science or global warming. It has its bright points though. San Antonio is nice. Minnesota is cold, but it does have the largest mall in America...which has an amusement park in it. 🤷🏼‍♀️ 🤣😂🤣 6y
julesG Speaking of history. I studied history of epidemic/health/medicine/drugs... There is very interesting research into drugs and religions. To bring it down to one sentence, religions/religious beliefs are the result of people taking drugs (alcohol, mushrooms, diluted poison, herbs,...) and trying to make sense of their intoxicated state afterwards. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG I don‘t get them either. It‘s all “my god is bigger than your god” so it just seems like an extreme form of small man syndrome to me. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Yeah, I was quite the feminist by that age, too. My questions and I are generally not welcome in a lot of Protestant churches and not always in the Catholic ones either. I‘ve always considered myself Christian, but I‘m thinking I actually might not be recently. 🤷🏼‍♀️ 6y
GingerAntics @julesG 🤣😂🤣 that is brilliant 🤣😂🤣 I‘m not sure I necessarily ascribe to it, but I could see that being a big part of some of the crazy things you find in religion. Someone HAD to be high as a freakin kite and drunk as hell to say “hey let‘s chop off part of our genitals to prove god loves us the best.” 🤣😂🤣 I have heard of marijuana and LSD giving people spiritual experiences. 6y
julesG I started studying this due to a class on medieval prophecies - which turned out to be a class talking about the apocalypse mainly and then running out of time to discuss anything else. So, talking about John, who removed himself from society to think about God and whatever else. He's fasting do much that he gets visions of what will happen at the end of the world,... That's what made me interested in drugs and their influence on belief systems 6y
julesG And it's not only "western" religions/beliefs benefitting from drugs. The Mayas, Aztecs, Nordic, Germanic, Celtic, Indian, African,... They all did drugs, or other methods to get visions. 6y
julesG Also, early religions came into existence, mostly, to make sense of the natural world. I wonder whether we had religious beliefs like we do if early humans had had a grasp of science like we do now. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG hey, some people think of science as a religion. 🤷🏼‍♀️ I‘ve heard another theory for why the book of Revelations was written. Either way, dude was not seeing god. It‘s not what it‘s made out to be all these millennia later. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG there are still things that science can‘t explain, so I think those religions would still have happened. At the same time, if the wars over god hadn‘t occurred and Christianity and Islam hadn‘t trampled over everyone in the west so everyone kept their nature religions, we probably wouldn‘t have environmental issues like we have...and certainly no one would be denying them. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG @OleAnder interesting thought I just had. 🤔 The earth is a woman. The earth is Mother Earth. Nature is Mother Nature. Until recently, western society didn‘t think anything of harming the earth, destroying nature. They just expected it would always be there...like with women. We can treat them like crap because we‘ll always have women. I wonder if people would be more concerned with the fate of our planet if it was seen as a man? 🤔 (edited) 6y
julesG That is an interesting thought indeed. On that note, I just realized that I need to teach my son a lot more things because I don't want him to turn into an arse who's relying on "we'll always have women". Also, the pickle we, humankind/eartheners, are in now, might not have happened in matriarchal societies, where the community is important, not the (male) "I". 6y
julesG Linguistically, German uses female articles for nature and earth. But the word planet/Planet has a masculine article. It feels empty somehow. Hollow. (pretty philosophical and/or poetic) anyway, I think the "safe the planet" message, although planet might be associated with the male, doesn't work either. 6y
julesG What we really need, IMHO, is a sense of community that crosses borders, cultures,... We need to re-learn that we are a giant herd/flock/group of individuals belonging to the same species. Hence, any act of violence is an act towards extinction of the species. Which, in itself, is against the evolutionary idea that's implanted in our genes. 6y
julesG Yes, you can throw science right back into my face saying that any species has fights, casualties, etc. But, they never work towards mass extinction, they never take more from nature than there is available,... 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics I think if Earth was seen as a man, men would feel entitled to having even yet more power. 'This is a man's world.' It would probably make them far more egoistic. But they don't take much care for themselves, I doubt they'd look after Earth with that in mind. @julesG is right. If people just forgot our differences, thought as HUMANS, we'd have avoided all the conflicts that exist today. :/ 6y
AlaSkaat One thing I don't understand is Racism. While defending people I have heard 'You'll go against your people to defend them?' Really. Against my people? Who are my people? Racist? Arrogant? Ignorant? Stupid? Cynical? Ohh!! WHITE?! ... a big facepalm. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG I agree with all of that. The problem in it is that as soon as you use the “e word” (evolution) you‘re going to lose anyone who is one of the three major western religions. 🙄 it‘s amazing how many people can‘t even see that a person evolves in their lifetime, so clearly people could evolve over time, even if there were created by god. Anyone who has been alive for the last 30-35 years can see that things can evolve QUICKLY!!! 6y
GingerAntics @julesG just look at the internet and computers and smartphones. We‘ve evolved SO much over the last three or four decades just in technology. I don‘t understand these people who can just outright deny evolution, but that might as well be a swear work with a remarkable number of people. @oleander I tried pointing out that creationism and evolution were not mutually exclusive in 8th grade at Catholic school. 😏 😇 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder people already say it‘s a man‘s world. 🙄 I hate that phrase, honestly. Yeah, racism annoys the hell out of me. I‘m not going against anyone by defending another human being. The only thing I‘m going against is bigotry. Hello!!! Seriously. I agree with @JulesG on the masculine mentality of the “me” centred universe vs the feline mentality of the communal cantered universe. Racism was totally invented by a white dude. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder @julesG which means scientifically it didn‘t exist for the first portion of human history until early humans moved out of Africa and spent so much time in less sunny climates that their skin had to evolve so they were able to properly absorb vitamin D etc. Oh look, it‘s all connected. Then again, most racists believe God made white people special so go figure. This is why history is important. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics I'm so lost on this conversation. 😂 so all I can say is that this world is messed up and unless something revolutionary happens, we are fu-ed. Lol. History should show us how to avoid mistakes. But we just copy them. Yes. Most intelligent species on the planet! 6y
julesG Right. We, humans, were all black at the start. The ancestors going north turned white over many generations. Whoops, evolution at work. 👿 And then Homo Sapiens did actually crossbreed with Neanderthals. Does that make the white people with a splash of Neanderthal in them lesser humans? Ooooh, I could go on. We are a pretty ephed up species. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder we did sort of take a turn there, but you seem to be in the right place anyway. Ultimately, we‘re all agreeing that the world is ephed up and we need to make some changes. For some reason, from this conversation, taking women seriously around the world seems like it would significantly change A LOT of what‘s wrong with the world. Interesting that so much hinges on something so simple, and yet so very fundamental. @julesG 6y
julesG That should be a big slogan "take women seriously"! 6y
AlaSkaat @julesG @GingerAntics I think instead of teaching kids about God in school, they should put more focus on evolution. Faith is a choice, optional. But science is a must. If they knew why people have different skin colours instead of religious people killing women because they were 'witches' if they spoke back! how the would world change. :/ 6y
AlaSkaat Lol, I am convinced I will be part of that revolution. A woman that changes the world! Hang on there, ladies. I first have to work on my awkwardness and confidence. But we'll get there. We will win this gender war 😂 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder you and me both, sister!!! You and me both. I can be a great leader when I need to be, but I‘m not confident enough (because I always feel so awkward) to jump in and just do it. I almost have to get warmed up, first. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder I totally agree that religion/creationism should not be taught in schools. I know people here in TX (and I would imagine most religious devotees) would say “science is a lie, Christianity is the necessity because our children will go to hell without it.” What we need (at least here in America) is an ACTUAL separation of church and state, and not lip service to the idea. They all say “yeah yeah, but this is the true religion.” (edited) 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder I agree with you on every point of why students should be taught actual science and not creation stories. I‘m not necessarily opposed to students being taught the various creation stories of the world as part of literature, but it should never ever be taught as science. EVER!!! 6y
GingerAntics @julesG fourth wave feminism? lol Although, I would imagine, to one extent or another, every feminist slogan ties into this one. Maybe it‘s the global slogan, and then each country can specify in what ways they need it to be shown at the moment. lol That could bring everyone together. That‘s good. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics I'm good at influencing people. We could work as a team, you'd be the leader and I'd act as an assistant, dropping you hints when you need them lol. I've read so much science, philosophy and psychology I know how people work. But bcs I'm autistic, most times instead of persuading them, I grunt, not being able to put my thoughts in words and are unable to make a point 😂 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics Yeah, exactly. Education forces religion on you. At least since they do it, they should cover ALL religions. So you could make your own choice. Religion should be a choice. But yes, it should also be taught as FAITH and not the TRUTH. Science has facts. It has proof. Religion lives in heart and mind. Science is all around us. How can they compare them or make them the same? 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder no idea. I‘d never seen such a thing until we moved to TX, but apparently it‘s very common in the southern states. It permeates EVERYTHING!!! I went to catholic school and it wasn‘t like it is here. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder score. We can work together and make this happen!!! lol 6y
AlaSkaat @julesG @GingerAntics I just thought of this 'If they have a heart, a mind and soul, if they have two feet and two hands and a mouth to speak like yours, do not reject; accept each other differences for you are build on the same foundations as them. By rejecting them, you reject yourself.' That should be nailed in people's heads lol 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics The whole education system just has to change. And yes we can!! Let's do it! Haha 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder oh I totally agree with that. I know people down here that wouldn‘t even say those words because they genuinely believe they‘re not true. That‘s the problem. When school systems are run by racists, religious supremacists, bigots, they‘re going to forward those types of ideas in their school systems. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder I‘m at the point that I‘m not even sure America‘s education system can be salvaged. It is so messed up and tangled up with all kinds of BS. Common Core. No Child Left Behind. It‘s all insane. None of it actually serves students or meets kids where they are, so there is no hope of any of it actually working. Religion and bigotry are far too mixed up in it. I see why so many people don‘t even want their kids in the system. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics I live in Scotland so our education system is a lot different. But our issue(from what I remember)is that they don't care much. They let kids do whatever they want. I left school at the age 17 and most of people I knew left at 16. No one was encouraged enough to stay. They did not try to convince you, didn't work better. They just taught what they had to teach and why should they do more?? I hope it has improved. But I am not so sure 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics I hope all those aspiring teachers will make a change in the education system all over the world 6y
AlaSkaat Teachers are leaders themselves. But do they know that? Teachers have as much of an effect on a persons life as their parents do. Why don't they try harder? And better? Why did they even begin teaching if not to bring about 'change'? Isn't teaching all about that after all? 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder oh wow, I love Scotland!!! I‘ve heard location plays a big roll in that, as far as the Scottish school system. It‘s similar to hear in that if you live in a more affluent area the education is better and more encouraging that in lesser affluent areas. That‘s probably true around the world, though. In the more extreme cases, the lesser affluent areas don‘t have a school at all. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder I‘ve known several teachers that went in with the idea of changing things. Then they get in the classroom and they are so beat down by the beurocracy, having to try to fund their classroom out of pocket, all the random BS they have to try to teach their students just to keep their jobs, they end up happy to just survive. It‘s sad. At least that‘s how it is here. I‘ve heard it‘s just that was in England, too. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder they‘re fully aware of that. The problem is, their hands are usually tied. You can‘t say certain things, you can never speak against the status quo or you‘ll lose your job. If a parent decides their child can do no wrong, you‘re held responsible for their behaviour, failing grades, or lack of effort. They are already doing a million things just to be able to keep their jobs. They‘re already over worked and under paid. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder the issue is above the teachers. The teachers are stuck within the same rock and a hard place as the students. It‘s at a district, state, and national level. Teachers already get everything thrown at their feet, and they don‘t get to make any of the decisions they‘re regularly blamed for. Teachers aren‘t the problem. The system they‘re stuck in (with their students) is. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder Education decisions are made by people who have never been a teacher and haven‘t been in a classroom in 20+ years, so they have no clue the effect their ideas are going to have. It‘s ridiculous. Teachers have zero control over anything. People generally don‘t get that. Being a teacher, even being a professor at the college/uni level, is a balancing act of trying to not get fired and trying to keep everyone happy. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder blaming teachers is like blaming women for being born female. They all get into teaching to make a difference and inspire kids. That all goes by the wayside when they actually get into the field and realise they actually have LESS power than the students and the students‘ parents do. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics That's true. Money plays a big role in education. Sadly. Now that's disappointing and sad. Holding a teacher responsible for a child's behaviour is wrong. That falls on their parents. Always. Teaching should be the way it's thought about. Not the way it is now. Gosh. This is heartbreaking. Decade after decade and Nothing has gotten better. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics You are so right. I don't put blame on them for not changing the system, say. But for how they teach. Even if they cannot do much, some don't even try to do what they CAN do. But that's totally understandable. They don't see any point. And tbh, I don't anymore either 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder exactly...and it just seems to be getting worse and worse. We‘ve had whole states worth of teachers walking out of the classroom to protest not even getting a living wage. Something like 75% or more of teachers in American work at least one additional job just to make ends meet. Teachers get paid for 8 hours a day, but then they have to go home and grade, and get lesson plans ready. They work all summer, usually for no pay at all. 6y
GingerAntics @oleander it‘s ridiculous. It‘s sad. So many systems basically use teachers until they‘ve burned out completely or retire and then just move on to the next teacher they can beat down. Some countries do seem to treat their educators as valuable people who play a huge role in the future of the nation, they have access to supply closets and they get paid a living wage. Most don‘t, though, sadly. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder in some cases, they literally can‘t. I‘m literally given a script to work off of and if I deviate from it, I can be fired...and I teach at the college level. 🙄 I get paid three hours a week per class, so I can be in the classroom for three hours a week and then spend at least that much time at home grading their assignments I had no say in, then my boss wants to tell me the way I graded was wrong. 🙄 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics What pains me the most is that this is all about control, power, money. I agree that Teachers should get more pay and should be allowed more freedom. They're intelligent. They should be allowed to make at least half more of choices than they can make now. Everyone's life starts with school, with education, teachers. Why are they getting so little in return? Education should be free and inspiring. Not dreadful and disappointing 6y
AlaSkaat The way they decide the pay for teachers, doctors, police is so so sooo f-ed up. Those are the ones that Deserve the Biggest pay. 6y
AlaSkaat Girl. Get moving. We have a lot to do 😂 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder EXACTLY!!! These are the least paid people in society, with the biggest demands on them and the biggest roles in society. How does that make any sense?! It is all power, control and money. It‘s sad. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics That is crazy. They seem to know way more about how education works when they're not even Directly involved in it. They just command and state rules. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics People are slowly waking up. Maybe, MAYBE in a near or far (not too far I hope) future things will change for the better. Maybe we can really have an impact on the way things are. There are a lot of us now. We can have more power than those 'powerful' people. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder here‘s hoping. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 6y
AlaSkaat I have faith!!! We can do it. I am sure of it! 😇 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder I think it‘s going to take more of us, but I also don‘t think we‘re alone. I‘m sure they want us to feel like we‘re alone so we‘ll shut up and feel intimidated, but we‘re not alone and we know it. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder is education compulsory until 16 or 18 in Scotland. All these different countries with different ages. It gets confusing. It‘s hard to keep up. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics We sure are not alone! You can leave highschool at 16. But then you can go to College after that- they can take you on after you turn 16 and this will prepare you and give you qualifications to get into University. Many students here have only College qualifications. HNC's, etc. But these are good enough to find a job. But I figure if you want to work in big businesses, you need a University Degree. 6y
AlaSkaat I explained it so bad 😂 best thing about study here is that after you hit 16, you get some money for attending school. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder they pay you for going to school? That is brilliant!!! People here act like if you‘re in school you‘re lazy, you should just get a job on top of it. Usually this comes from people who never went to college or never really cared about their grades. 🙄 I had my doctor (so obviously went to college) tell me she had 7 jobs in med school so I should get a job in grad school even though I wasn‘t allowed to have one for the first year. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder No wonder she was such a half ass doctor. 🙄 Yeah, here they told us from as young as I can remember that if you went to college you‘d pretty much be guaranteed a job and people would be lining up to hire you. Such a lie. 🙄 I owe more in student loans than I have ever earned from my degree. In fact, I haven‘t earned much at all from my degree. It‘s pretty useless. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics I think in HS everyone got it. But in College and Especially in Uni it's mostly for those that have a low-income etc. Helps if you work on top of study and can only do part-time jobs. It's similar here. Most students have jobs of some kind. I don't think a degree is necessary to get a job. Ofc it gives you advantage, but not always. If you have the skills and know how to get it, you can get the job that's asked for a master degree 6y
AlaSkaat I started study 4 times before, but never liked it. The only reason I started University again is because I want to gain knowledge and skills. Not to have a degree to show. You can gain all that while working, but since I've been ill for so long, school is the best choice rn. Soon I will combine it with work experience again 6y
AlaSkaat What's your degree?? 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder I‘ve studied a bunch of stuff. My bachelors and masters are both in history, though. There are hardly any jobs in history and on top of them, they hire men over women in this field. For some reason, if your female and a historian you must study women‘s history. Clearly, no woman would have any other interest in the field. 🙄 You don‘t really earn skills here. You have to get them on the job, but can‘t get a job without them. 🤷🏼‍♀️ 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder It‘s a double edge sword that serves to screw over young people, and then the older generations like to point fingers at my generation and the next one after us and claim we don‘t work hard enough or we‘re lazy. We were given a broken system, and to stay afloat, they‘re screwing us. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder there are thousands and thousands more college graduates every year, and there haven‘t really been any new jobs since the 70s or 80s (depending on who‘s giving the analysis). 6y
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GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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Really? I‘m sorry, this is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Very few men alive today remember a time when women couldn‘t vote. A few more men remember when most women didn‘t work, but really, a lot of women worked (poor families mostly). If we all said we weren‘t working anymore, we don‘t want autonomy, we‘ll do what we you say, they‘d want us to spend time cooking, cleaning, and “looking good” for them.

GingerAntics The beauty myth is older than she claims and it wouldn‘t go away like this. It would probably get worse. “You‘ve got all this free time so your makeup better be ‘on point‘ when I get home at the end of the day.” 🙄 I have literally heard multiple men/boys my age say a woman‘s place is in the home and to “look good for her man.” The beauty myth isn‘t a going anywhere, anytime soon. 6y
GingerAntics We either accept it or reject it for ourselves and try to instil that same rejection in our children. 🤦🏼‍♀️ The content of this book was making me roll my eyes and used the facepalm emoji, but now the book itself is. Is it over yet? Are we there yet? 6y
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GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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All of this STILL happens in 2019.
We have the women‘s tax. Somehow tampons and pads are the same as condoms in the eyes of men.
In America, women are having to fight for prenatal care because it‘s a “preexisting condition” and men don‘t want to have to pay for it because they supposedly never use it. I‘m wondering how they got here? Someone has suggested snake eggs, and this may have some validity.

GingerAntics All of these things exist in 2019. All of these things existed in 1990 when this book was written. These things have existed since all of these things were invented. I‘m not sure where Wolf is going with this chapter, but I‘m honestly getting bored with it. Sorry. #unpopularopinion #thebeautymyth #naomiwolf 6y
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GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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This whole “Woman Question” thing is a little too Nazi Germany‘s “Jewish Question.” Just saying.

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GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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@julesG This just annoys me. Seriously, what the eph is wrong with people?! The next but says that women don‘t feel entitled to eat. That women have been taught to go hungry since birth, so it was all too easy to get women to continue to starve themselves even when there was plenty of food available to them. The women who starve themselves the most are actually the most affluent women.
#thebeautymyth #naomiwolf #seriouslypeople

GingerAntics @OleAnder Susie Orbach is the author of several books on women and nutrition. One of them (the first one maybe) I‘ve heard so many women say “this book change my life” because it ends this “you should be starving” mentality. I think that‘s the number one thing that needs to end. If you‘re hungry, your body needs food. Period. It‘s your body trying to survive. I wonder how many crazy bitches wouldn‘t be birches if they just ate something. 6y
julesG So wrong! Again, why would a mother do that? I'm just too much of an equal rights person to do such a thing and/or to ever fully relate to it. - - - I know it's customary here to serve the men and boys first at dinner - head of the family first. Guess what my rebel self does? Exactly! I serve my daughter first, then my son - but only, because it means I can eat hot food fresh from the pot rather than lukewarm food. 😉 6y
GingerAntics @julesG that guy from the matriarchal society really should write a book. I would read it. There are just SO many things I want to ask him, like if crazy stuff like this happens in his society. It probably doesn‘t. Everyone would eat the same. Maybe the kids eat first, then the adults, but gender would have nothing to do with it. 6y
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julesG Have a snickers! #SorryNotSorry 6y
GingerAntics @julesG exactly. The book actually addresses that. Mothers feed everyone else and then they eat whatever is left over at whatever temperature it‘s become. Girls see this and think it‘s how it‘s supposed to be and the cycle goes on. I‘m all for feeding everyone at once and then siting down at eating. How are you supposed to be a good mother if you‘re not eating? 6y
julesG I just wish he had given us his email address. We ask, he didn't. Shame! 6y
GingerAntics @julesG 🤣😂🤣 that‘s the thing, these crazy women would NEVER eat a snickers. It‘s too many calories. 🤣😂🤣 Now I want a snickers. 6y
julesG I've always wondered about films/commercials where the US family sits down for a meal at the kitchen counter but Mom stays in the kitchen serving everyone and doesn't eat. Makes sense now. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG aw. He may face either criticism/mocking attitudes or a lot of curiosity. 🤷🏼‍♀️ The book would help, though. People start asking questions, just hand them the book. lol 6y
GingerAntics @julesG yeah it‘s pretty common. My mother has even shamed me about it. “I fed you first. I waited until you were done before I ate anything. That‘s what good mothers do.” No it‘s not. There was ONE of me. She had ONE freakin child. We easily could have sat down and had a meal together. That what I wanted. I asked her to do it. (It‘s what actually happened so I have no idea what she‘s talking about 🙄) 6y
julesG One more thing. Years ago, maybe in my late teens, a friend told me to keep the instructions of the cabin crew on a plane in mind. They always say, in case of an emergency, put your own oxygen mask on first, then help others. Although I sometimes forget this principle, I have learned that self care is important to have enough strength to take care of my family. 6y
julesG We have meals together, I insist on at least one meal together every day. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics Yeah, this is crazy! One time during high school I had dinner at an old friends house. Their meals were all calorie counted etc. I looked at the plate and thought 'this is what they eat? This isn't enough even for an appetiser!' And when I talked to my friend later about it, they were not allowed snacks of any sort, even if they were hungry. If they ate, they didn't get to eat the meal. 6y
AlaSkaat And mind you, my friend was overweight. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder oh wow, that‘s Nazism at the table. That‘s child abuse. That‘s WHY she was fat. Her body was just trying to keep her alive by not letting any weight go. FFS 6y
GingerAntics @julesG good for you!!! Family meals are REALLY important when kids are little. They get sick of it as teens, so most people decide it‘s not worth the fight or trying to schedule so it becomes a weekly thing, but even that is great for families. I think that‘s a really good analogy. If you‘re not at your best, how are you supposed to help your kids be their best? 6y
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GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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So many good parts of this chapter, honestly. Glad I didn‘t linger on the last two. This could be a book unto itself, honestly. We‘re so focused on being thin, and the men want us thin, then everyone is frustrated when fertility problems arise. I wonder how much of it is down to this beauty myth BS? I have so many quotes from this chapter, so I‘ll just leave these two here. Ladies, I beg of you. Stop dieting and just be healthy.

GingerAntics You need all of the food groups, including the chocolate. You need the energy to stop taking BS from men and the patriarchy. Don‘t gorge yourself, but be satisfied. It will all be fine. You are beautiful and strong and important. Your body is just the way it‘s meant to be. Screw the patriarchy. #thebeautymyth #naomiwolf #thedietsaremakingusfat 6y
GingerAntics How many women do you know who go on 1,200 calorie diets because they‘ve been told it‘s the minimum they can eat without starving? Yeah, they‘re eating LESS than poor people who literally have a good shortage. Some of them (many of them?) are even doing it under a doctors guidance. I did. My doctor was a woman. #thoughtoftheday (edited) 6y
julesG My friend, who looked really good, did lots of sports, thought she was still chubby, so she started this crazy `I eat only these nutrient shakes for 3 months, only 800 calories a day' - granted, it was under supervision of a team of doctors, but for real? She lost weight, but she was craving real food for 3 months. Why do that? Why oh why? I strive to eat as healthy as I can afford. To stay healthy. So "diet" for me means food choice not... 6y
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julesG ...reducing calories. Observation I made last year, eat tasty healthy food, eat as much as you want. I gained strength, did more exercise and lost weight. Also, stopped watching TV/commercials, no more magazines,... No more body shaming. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG exactly!!! Your diet is what you choose to eat. It‘s not some crazy thing you do as long as you can hold out. I‘m trying to figure out what kind of crazy doctors are okaying these extreme diets? 6y
batsy @julesG The "no more magazines" thing has been a blessing. I used to read the ones my sister bought, then I stopped and felt immediately better about myself as a human being. And she stopped buying them. Nowadays when I'm at the hair salon or something and pick one up, it really feels like I've just arrived from another planet. 6y
julesG @batsy Exactly! Recently saw one where the headline was something about the Royals, about how Meghan and Catherine wanted to outshine each other at the Queen's Christmas party. And I just thought, a) why this shaming? b) I don't give a f#*% 6y
GingerAntics @batsy @julesG well that‘s the press, shaming everyone in the world. It‘s actually made CNN and BBC news that the UK press is being racist little punks. Isn‘t it lovely. The 1950s are back, all around the world!!! 🙄 I can‘t remember when I stopped reading the magazines all together. I think when I started college I decided I didn‘t have time. I never went back, thank god. 6y
julesG @GingerAntics I have books, they are much better than magazines. No looking back. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG right? For a while I had a people magazine from why Superman died and when Peter Jennings died. All I read in them was the articles about those two. At some point I lost them. 🤷🏼‍♀️ I think those are the last two magazines I read. So 2005ish. 6y
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GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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A chapter ago, she said the double standard had died. Hm. 🤔🤔🤔
#thebeautymyth #naomiwolf #doublestandard

julesG There have been double standards for so long, probably longer than humans have counted time. I wish we could just overcome it, but it seems to be part of our DNA. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG I don‘t know about that. Double standards have existed since the beginning of time in patriarchal societies, but in matriarchal societies everyone ends up equal. Women, when put in charge, don‘t see men as the enemy or someone to be controlled, they see them as partners. It‘s just a totally different mentality that in today‘s society is seen as weak and useless, but it would make the world better. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG it may be part of male DNA, but even that is going too far because not every guy believes in the double standards these days. Just look at Neil Gaiman. Thank god he had a son. 6y
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julesG I totally ignored matriarchal societies. And with part of our DNA I was, of course, exaggerating. 😉 But it feels like that, as if it was so ingrained in all of us, through our societies. Argh! Makes me so angry! I'd love to live in a matriarchal society. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG a lot of work has been done to erase matriarchal societies, and if anyone remembers them now, the gut reaction has been set up to be “oh thats unnatural.” 🙄 I‘d love to live in one, too. I think most people would like it if they tried. I want to buy an island and make it a matriarchal society and we can all move there. It probably won‘t last long. We probably won‘t have a standing army. 🤔 6y
julesG Met a stranger on a train last year. He was from the amazon rain forest, from a matriarchal tribe. It was very interesting to talk to him. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG oh wow, really? That had to be interesting. He must be looking around, appalled at how little people care about women and children, education, working things out with words instead of guns. Hm. I wasn‘t sure places still existed like that. I thought Christianity destroyed them all. That‘s uplifting. 6y
julesG He was in his 50s. He got a scholarship from a Catholic school when he was about 10, made it to university in the states and now worked for a diamond broker, travelling between the major diamond trading cities. He had married a woman from a rural area in West Germany. He told me, he had to explain the concept of marriage to his mother, the matriarch of his tribe. He was very very polite and respectful towards me and another female passenger.... 6y
julesG ....travelling with an infant. We really had a lovely chat for two hours, until we all had to change trains in the next big city. The both of us women encouraged him to write down his story. He had so much to share, about his tribe his life. I remember him saying that he preferred Europe to the US. But of course, the western political/cultural systems were still a shock to him at first. But he was introduced to these in his youth, so he adjusted 6y
GingerAntics @julesG oh my god, a woman‘s dream!!! Wow, he had to explain marriage to his mother. Hm. That‘s interesting. From a survival stand point, that makes sense. Most matriarchal societies I‘ve read about are more communal. In some, a man can claim a child after it‘s born or it‘s just a child of the community. In others, every kid is a child of the community. They thrive on this whole “it takes a village” thing. (edited) 6y
GingerAntics @julesG yeah, I would imagine that if you come from a society where women are seen as people, then you come out into western society and women are less than human it would be a bit of a shock. 6y
julesG He said, in his tribe a woman chooses her mate. She may choose to keep/stay with him as long as she was happy in the relationship. But they don't have marriages, relationships don't have to be for life and he himself had a few real siblings and half-siblings. So, him getting married, he explained it as a love-contract to his mother. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG Hm, that‘s an interesting way to put it. With the crazy divorce rates and people staying in horrible marriages “for the kids” or whatever stupid reasons, I‘m seriously beginning to question marriage. That makes so much sense. Men have to behave and treat their women well or they will leave. It‘s logic. We teach girls that only hussies leave bad men. Just look at these abuse cycles. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG at least in America, it‘s gotten to the point that mothers - middle class, upper class, everyone - actually feed their infant daughters LESS. It‘s socially sanctioned child abuse against girls and no one cares. 🤦🏼‍♀️ Parts of this book are great. Parts of this book are infuriating. I swear. 6y
julesG Also, due to communal childcare, care for each other, no woman is dependent on a man. Everyone is an equal member of the group, has to contribute, but is also supported by the community. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG exactly!!! And that‘s what happens when women are in charge. I‘ve heard people who had all sons and were so happy about it, once they‘ve gotten old they‘re all “I should have had a daughter so someone could take care of me in my old age. I‘m going to have to go to a nursing home now.” 🙄 Girls are almost seen as automatic feee labour. It‘s ridiculous. 6y
julesG 🙈🙈🙈 Why oh why? 6y
julesG I know, it's been like that for ages: Girls being less, being free labour, taking care of elderly family members as well as younger siblings.... I always try to remedy this with my kids, but even I notice a gender divide in my home. My son often says, he doesn't do a certain task, his sister could do it. He doesn't get away with it. It means an ear full, plus doing the task and one of his sisters for being an ass. Tough job! 6y
GingerAntics @julesG good job, mum!!! More parents need to do it. I have no idea where these kids get the idea that their sisters will just pick up their slack. 6y
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GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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@julesG it seems this book is suggesting the obsession with thinness in women started in the 1920‘s, but I think what you posted earlier would suggest it started sooner than that.
#thebeautymyth #naomiwolf #sickasbeautiful

Literary_Siren That makes sense, since litheness was the most “in” body type in that time period. 6y
GingerAntics @Literary_Siren it was, but earlier in the late 19th century there was something called “consumption chic.” So I think it started before that. I think it was simply politicised and used against women starting in this period. 6y
julesG Valid point, in the quote, but I still think it started with TBC in the late 18th century. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG I agree with you. It may have become more wide spread or to all classes, but I think it started earlier than the 1920s. 6y
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GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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Where does Naomi Wolf live that the sexual double standard no longer exists? I figured out there was a double standard between me (and other girls) and the boys in about third grade (1994). The double standard never went anywhere here in America. Where does Wolf live, because I want to move there.
#naomiwolf #thebeautymyth #goingdownhillfast #shouldhavequitwhileshewasahead #doublestandard

Literary_Siren For real! I HATE the double standard. I have to work twice as hard and I‘m twice as smart as most of the boys around me. 6y
GingerAntics @Literary_Siren it‘s every where from “good girls don‘t...” to of a guy has a bunch of sexual partners he‘s a “pimp” or a “playa” or desirable, if a woman has more than one or two partners she‘s a whore. 🙄 I‘m with you on being annoyed. We‘re usually more qualified, but somehow we still have to work twice as hard. The thing that annoys me the most is when guys find out I‘m a historian, they tend to assume I‘m a women‘s historian. 🙄 6y
julesG Why would you be a women's historian? That's so sexist. Not all female doctors are gynecologists. 😤 6y
GingerAntics @julesG THANK YOU!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 I swear, my masters program was mostly women, and the ONE student who was really interested in women‘s history was a MAN!!! 6y
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GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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RANT WARNING!!! This sentence sums up this entire chapter. I‘m actually going to skip the second 2/3 of it, because it‘s really just beating the argument over the head and reiterating my desire to explore goddesses as opposed to gods.

GingerAntics Additionally, the argument in this chapter hinges on the stereotype that America has always been a really religious nation. I think Wolf needs to have a little chat with Manseau to get her history straight. On top of that, as far as I can see, Republican leaders are STILL holding women to these moral standards. Why does it matter what a woman wore when she was raped? Why does it matter what a woman wore when she was sexually harassed? 6y
GingerAntics These archaic beliefs are still alive and well, and you better believe they are more than supported by most mainstream Christian denominations today. These aren‘t replacement beliefs (sorry Wolf), they‘re tandem beliefs. #thebeautymyth #naomiwolf #religion 6y
GingerAntics I just have one question: Why is it that goddess religions don‘t look down on men, but see them as equal partners in the world; all the while, god based religions have to make enemies out of women? Are men really this insecure? #questionoftheday (edited) 6y
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Exbrarian Yes, we are. 6y
GingerAntics @Exbrarian really? You guys have all the power. You get to ask, all the time, what we were wearing. What‘s to feel insecure about? Women are, generally speaking, very loving people. We just want to love you for all your wonderful qualities...and maybe ignore the not so hot ones. 🤷🏼‍♀️ 6y
GingerAntics @Exbrarian I just want to hug every man in the world now...although, admittedly, statistically, there are some bad men out there and that could lead to some bad outcomes. I wonder how many serial killers I‘d end up hugging...🤔 Maybe I can skip them. 6y
GingerAntics @Exbrarian not that only men can be serial killers, just that if you were to hug 50% of the world‘s population no matter their gender or anything else, just think of how many serial killers you‘d hug (and hopefully live to tell the tale). How many abusers. How many truly evil people. Wow, this took a dark turn. 6y
Exbrarian I think it‘s because a woman laughed at one of us once. I lost my handbook, but I‘m pretty sure that‘s the reason. 6y
Exbrarian Also, maybe if we hugged more serial killers they might not kill so many people? 6y
Exbrarian I‘m not actually volunteering to hug serial killers. I 6y
GingerAntics @Exbrarian oh yeah, she was one of the jerks. There‘s a few in every lot. That is a good theory on serial killers, though. I think we might have a hard time finding volunteers for that gig, though. I‘m not volunteering to hug them either. MAYBE the ones that aren‘t psychopaths but just angry. Maybe. But still no. 6y
julesG @Exbrarian @GingerAntics - Interesting and funny! If I wasn't this truly reserved with strangers, I'd hug more people. I might not distinguish between good or evil, just offer some hugs. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG just be careful of the serial killers. Safety first. 6y
julesG We don't have a lot of those here in Germany these days. 6y
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GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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Wouldn‘t this be so horrible? We would live in a society where people would be treated like all people were created equal, and everyone has the right to life and liberty and to try to find their own happiness in a world where people would genuinely be decent people most of the time. THIS WOULD CLEARLY BE ANARCHY!!! 🙄
#thebeautymyth #naomiwolf #religion

julesG How to implement this? And, would an extrapolation of this make a good utopian novel that was then made into a Netflix film and everyone wanted to emulate it? 6y
GingerAntics @julesG step 1. Stop starving the women. Step 2. Find the gutsy men. Step 3. Get really lucky? I feel like this should totally become a book turned trending, hot topic Netflix movie. Accept not dystopian...more like an alternate universe. (edited) 6y
julesG It can't be a dystopia. It has to be utopia! 6y
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GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️ I actually used to go to a church that believed (believes - they still do as far as I know) that if you were even an ounce over weight you had a food addiction and would send you to this Christian 12 step program called Celebrate Recovery. 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️ (as a side note, this emoji is getting A LOT of use in relation to this book)
#thebeautymyth #naomiwolf #smh

Crazeedi That church obviously wasn't truly a church. No believers in the good news would condemn another, that's not up to us. We welcome all since we all fall short 6y
GingerAntics @Crazeedi you clearly haven‘t been to Texas. 99% of being a member of a church is looking down on people who are not members of your church. That church is not even remotely close to the only one, and frankly, it‘s probably the majority of churches that find one way or another to create an us and them mentality. Your message is what gets people in the door. It‘s fear of being judged for leaving that keeps people in. 6y
GingerAntics @Crazeedi here is a link to the church I used to go to. https://fellowshipdallas.org It‘s probably not much different from the church most people go to. Every church has its thing. 6y
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Crazeedi @GingerAntics I'm so sad to hear this, it is not that way with true followers, I'm so sorry there are places like that. No I don't live in Texas. I suggest you maybe keep looking. There are places that welcome all, after all a church is for those of us who are sick and know we need help. 6y
Crazeedi @GingerAntics I go to a very small church in a rural area, I'm sure there are churches like you say even here, but keep searching! You will be led! Many blessings! 6y
GingerAntics @Crazeedi oh don‘t worry, I‘m being led...right into a goddess religion where everyone is treated as a human. Me and Christianity have decided to see other people. 😉 6y
Crazeedi @GingerAntics I hope you find what you are looking for! 6y
Karisa 👀 🤣 6y
TheBookHippie @GingerAntics ha here in alt right religion republican haven where I live it's the exact same . Ridiculous . No Jesus follower believes that nonsense . Christianity unfortunately has a terrible lack of people who know their own Christ. 6y
TheBookHippie I get on the daily "but you can't be a Jesus Feminist ...." wanna make a bet?!?! Ugh ignorance. 6y
GingerAntics @TheBookHippie that‘s for sure!!! It‘s interesting how far off the original message they‘ve gotten. It‘s sad...and ridiculous. 6y
TheBookHippie @GingerAntics I don't engage anymore. I can worship anywhere. Doesn't need to be church. I've given up here in my town. 6y
GingerAntics @TheBookHippie there is actually about about it. I ate it up. The truth of the matter is, Jesus was probably the first recorded feminist in western civilisation. MEN screwed it up. In fact, Constantine screwed it up when he insisted on mixing it with all his other beliefs so that he could “cover his bases” and make it the state Religion. 6y
GingerAntics @TheBookHippie Modern Christians aren‘t even open to the facts of the original Jesus, so people like me (who know) are left wondering and are just condemned for wanting answers. It‘s easier to shut us up and condemn all history study than actually address how it was messed up and returning to the original message. Then again, anti-semitism would have to end then. 6y
TiredLibrarian @GingerAntics My MIL goes to a church with a Bod 4 God group, and this is in upstate NY. 🤔🙄 6y
GingerAntics @TiredLibrarian I thought the “bod” was sinful and should be abandoned/ignored at all costs? They‘re really sending a mixed message with that one. It‘s kind of creepy, too. 6y
TheBookHippie @GingerAntics EXACTLY. Ugh people educated thyself. Boggles the mind. FYI my great grandma Jewish. ❤️ 6y
TheBookHippie Also I've read that book 5 times gifted it over and over 6y
GingerAntics @TheBookHippie so you know Messiah is a HUMAN!!! Great!!! You may be the only one. I get why Jewish people get pissed at Christians for misappropriating their religious symbolism. 6y
GingerAntics @TheBookHippie perfection!!! When I started it, it was really early and I couldn‘t sleep. I figured I‘d read a chapter or two and then fall back to sleep...then suddenly it was noon. lol Oops. 6y
TiredLibrarian @GingerAntics There must be different degrees of sinful bods, like Dante's circles of Hell, and fat bods are the most exceedingly sinful. How else do you make sense of an "anti-fat pastor"? ? 6y
TheBookHippie @GingerAntics favorite happening -mind you in 2018 "but you don't look Jewish how can you have a Jewish hereditary blood anemia?"???‍♀️??‍♀️ 6y
GingerAntics @TiredLibrarian that explains it!!! 🧐🤣 6y
TheBookHippie @TiredLibrarian degrees of sinful bods 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣mic drop. 6y
GingerAntics @TheBookHippie 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🙄🙄🙄💥💥💥 I‘ve got nothing for that. You‘d think with all this access to knowledge, people would know what a stereotype was and why they‘re not helpful. 🤔🤔🤔 One would think. 6y
GingerAntics @TheBookHippie that was pretty good about the degrees of sinful bodies. @TiredLibrarian So it‘s the seventh circle of sinful bodies to be fat. The first circle of sinful bodies is a perfect female body, I‘m guessing? 6y
TheBookHippie @GingerAntics well now I want to read Dante again so there's that .. 6y
GingerAntics @TheBookHippie are you going to replace all the sins with body types? I can‘t wait for this reading. Please do post about it. 6y
TheBookHippie @GingerAntics seriously how fun would that be??? Now where to fit that in my reading plan 🤣🤣📚📚📚📚 6y
GingerAntics @TheBookHippie 🤣😂🤣 oh I can‘t wait!!! 🤣😂🤣 I‘ve never read Dante, though I‘ve always wanted to. The issue of translations just gets my head spinning and I always say “later.” I may have to join you. 🤣😂🤣 6y
julesG The issue of translations is what keeps me from reading a lot of books. I know that a translation is an interpretation and I'd like to interpret a text myself not interpret the interpretation/translation. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG yeah, but most of us don‘t know enough italian or Latin to read this in the original. Those languages get really complicated, especially the more complicated the idea is. It‘s a matter of finding the closest translation that is still readable. This thing was written about 700 years ago. Even if you knew Latin or modern Italian you‘d need a translation. 6y
julesG I know! 😭😭😭 6y
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GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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I‘ve really set myself up to fail, especially since jobs in my specific field are rare. I might as well stake all my hopes and dreams on being a bloody author.
The question is: Who‘s getting their arse kicked by this female with a brain (and at least marginal talent)?!
#thebeautymyth #naomiwolf #womeninacademea #womenhistorians #womeninhistory

Exbrarian If you feel like commiserating I suggest 6y
GingerAntics @Exbrarian oh god there is a book on it? 🤦🏼‍♀️ That‘s got to be cheery reading. 6y
Exbrarian It‘s as frustrating as you would expect. A series of essays from one author who writes about her experience earning her doctorate in religion. 6y
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GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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@OleAnder @julesG case in point...I looked up “The Princess Bride.” That‘s innocent enough. 5 of the 7 videos that came up involve sex. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!! We are ephing people!!! We do not exist solely for your sexual pleasure!!! 🙄 Jesus Christ, this is why I don‘t have a boyfriend and don‘t date. 🤦🏼‍♀️ #WTF #womanwithabrain #seriously

julesG I'm often amazed at what comes up when I search seemingly harmless key words. Makes me super vigilant when my kids are online. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG I can‘t imagine what that‘s like with little kids. You can‘t keep them offline, but EVERYTHING is sexualised, even perfectly innocent things. 6y
AlaSkaat Lol. This is the subject that irritates me the worst. I can honestly tell you I have not spoken to many men OR women without them having mentioned anything sexual. Even if it is a joke, can't they come up with something that's actually funny? I stopped going on Facebook because all I see is stuff like this. 6y
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AlaSkaat @julesG My 7 year old nephew is a huge fan of Youtube (gamers etc) already and we always have to keep an eye on him for that reason. 6y
TheWordJar Yikes! My 12 yo daughter really really wants to navigate YouTube on her own (to see videos of her fave Kpop group), and it scares me to death. I usually let her do her thing on our tv if I‘m or dad‘s in the same room, but it‘s a constant eye on what pops up because WHO KNOWS!!! We‘ve also had lots of discussions about portrayals of women in various shows, videos, books, etc. Constant education for everyone here. I really need to read this book. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG @OleAnder @TheWordJar the internet is a scary place for adults. Kids don‘t see that, so they don‘t know they should really be more afraid of it than we are. I can‘t imagine what you parents do when your kids are at other people‘s houses or at school. Who knows what they‘re doing on the internet when you‘re not looking. At work at a college and our IT dept is constantly having to deal with removing porn. 6y
Exbrarian Rule #34 unfortunately. 6y
GingerAntics @Exbrarian I‘m not sure any of this is actually The Princess Bride porn, but I‘m sure there really is that out there. 🤦🏼‍♀️ Most of it is actually Justin Timberlake. 6y
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GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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In some cases women over estimate, in others, they under estimate. It‘s becoming more and more common for men to say to random women they don‘t even know, that they see out in public, “you need to get in shape” or “you need to lose weight” (at least where I live).
#thebeautymyth #naomiwolf #onestepforwardtwostepsback

julesG I'm wondering whether this happens here, too. I'm not out and about often enough. 6y
AlaSkaat I belong to the skinny group, never being able to put on weight. And yeah, I 'must' put on weight because men like more meat on a woman!! Ugh, ok. Thank you boys but I'll focus on being healthy and strong and not be a statue for admiration for you. Lol. Ignorance again. 😑 'fat or too skinny' when did our bodies become a 'style' ?? Is my body SO last year? 6y
AlaSkaat This also goes to women. I see them all the time, those 'work out buddies' sneering at other girls who don't look like them. Be ashamed! 🙈 6y
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GingerAntics @OleAnder I totally agree. There is this “perfect” balance that no one actually has. Too skinny, “eat a burger.” Too fat, “get in shape.” Too muscled, “stop trying to be a man.” 🙄 It‘s dumb. I have a naturally athletic build, so my legs especially aren‘t thin (I have never had a thigh gap), but they seemed almost pure muscle. My grandmother used to always call me a lesbian (but would never tell me what that meant). 🙄 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder just like male athletes, I got hurt really bad, played hurt too long, had surgery, was on my butt for over a year recovering and gained a bunch of weight. All the crazy diet fads have actually caused me to gain more. They say we would weigh LESS now if we‘d never far dieted, because we wouldn‘t have been on the yo-yo. I still work out and I‘m really strong, but I don‘t necessarily look like it. 🤷🏼‍♀️ 6y
GingerAntics @julesG I hope you never find out. More so, I hope it‘s not a thing where you live. I fear it‘s the male/patriarchal back lash against the me too movement. I‘ve heard it‘s on the rise recently. How dare we (women) demand to be treated like human beings. Of course I always think of just the right thing to say about 10 minutes later. 🙄 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics Ah, I get what you mean. I don't understand the whole obsession with how the body looks. And I'm glad you recovered well! And since you're strong- if someone says anything bad about your body, just throw them a punch. Show them how healthy you are! 😂 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder @julesG my biggest thing, for me, is balance. Everyone has a natural weight and fighting that is mostly futile. I‘m more concerned that I‘m eating a balanced diet and getting healthy activity. I‘m not skinny so people generally don‘t believe it, but I have actually shown certain types of disordered eating. Now that I know this, I want to try and avoid needing treatment. I‘d never be able to afford it. 6y
julesG I never have a retort handy either. As for weight muscle, etc. I have extra weight since I had my children. My disease doesn't allow me to either go on a diet or do lots of sports. Anyway I've gained strength over the last year and lost weight. And I've eaten a lot of chocolate, too. 😉 Anyway, bodyshaming happens here, too. It starts in nursery sometimes. And it's not always the other kids. My son has been called scrawny by teachers,... 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder @julesG I used to work under a teacher who was also the faculty leader of the drill/dance team. She had skirts from their uniforms from the 90s that were so small they didn‘t fit her perfectly healthy 7 year old niece. She showed us pictures of her holding one of them and it was scary. 😳 To think HIGH SCHOOL students were at one point that tiny. We wondered how many survived into adulthood being that tiny. 6y
julesG Making him believe he has to eat more, which he does, but it's hardly ever healthy food. My daughter, on the other hand, eats lots of healthy food and us a bit chubby. She's been called chubby by her class teacher. 🙈🙈🙈🙈 People don't think about these things. They just say it. My ex once told my son not to throw like a girl. I was at his throat in seconds. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG oh lord that‘s so sad. I‘m so sorry for him. I really wish adults would act like it, especially toward children. I read an article once that before the invention of the bathroom scale, most people (male or female) never knew how much they weighed and a woman gaining weight upon marriage and with childbirth was a sign of wisdom, so women weren‘t concerned with all this BS. They just made sure they ate good things as much as they could. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG if they could do their normal work, they didn‘t care. Men appreciated that their wives had this extra weight to nourish their unborn children, etc. Being a little bigger was a total status symbol. “Oh that‘s a mother. She knows stuff. She‘s dealt with lunatic toddlers/teenagers. She‘s awesome.” 6y
GingerAntics @julesG oh my god he‘s fine. If he‘s hungry, he will eat. A lot of little kids are kind of scrawny until they reach puberty. Other kids (and lots of them) are chubby until puberty. Some still are that way after puberty. As long as they‘re eating healthy I don‘t know why it should matter to anyone. 🙄 Ugh that annoys me so much. 6y
julesG I hope I can get this, need to eat sweets to put on weight out of my son's head. - - - yeah, women used to be healthy when they were chubby. Like you said. Just remember reading about the 18th century, when consumption chique became a thing. That's probably when the craze started. Is there anything in your book about that? 6y
AlaSkaat @julesG @GingerAntics My aunties son is just a year old and he's big! But he eats well and is a very healthy kid. But people often ask how much she gives him... he's just a baby and he should now be a perfect weight! I wish everyone would stop trying to find 'one that fits all' and understand that every body is different. 6y
AlaSkaat @julesG @GingerAntics When I was younger I rarely experienced anything like this. A teacher might have asked a parent about the kids weight, but once it was established everything was well, they dropped it. But now everyone knows better. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG not sure. I haven‘t gotten to the food portion of the book yet. I‘ll let you know. lol They‘ve actually found that BMI is an accurate predictor of health (surprise surprise) only for men. People with a BMI in the range of “overt weight” and “slightly obese” are actually better able to survive sever illness and cancer. The negative heart effects of those BMI ranges are only significantly higher for men. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder everyone is a critic. 🙄 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics But being a critic that's lacking knowledge... this is why I never get offended. Only those that don't understand will judge you and you can't be offended by their lack of knowledge. 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder in theory you can‘t, no, but it doesn‘t keep it from hurting or getting to you. Which then makes me mad that I‘m giving them the time of day when they probably didn‘t remember it five seconds later. It‘s a vicious cycle, and this book is really bringing up past experiences in a way I wish it wouldn‘t. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics I hope you find a way to learn how to get past that! 😇❤❤ 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder the part on food is actually making me feel empowered, so I think I‘ve moved past that part. I hope I am, anyway. It‘s amazing how hard I‘m finding it to make a proper calorie goal. I‘m still 650 calories from what I should be getting every day. It‘s amazing what we‘ve learned as normal. (edited) 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics Oh, I am glad! It all comes down to finding what is good for you and your body. That takes some time. But you seem to be doing great! A good diet is actually soo hard to maintain, never mind actually finding it! Uhhh 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder that‘s why I don‘t diet. I make healthy choices (I eat my vegetables, I eat fruit, I love both and always have), I stay hydrated, I love chocolate. It‘s all about balance. Dieting does A LOT of damage to people. Most women who are obese are actually that way because of dieting and the damage it‘s done. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics I don't think anyone actually knows what it is we should do. Be it diet, exercise etc. You can only eat well, move enough and hope for the best lol 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder actually, I read an article that said if all you can do is a 30 minute walk every day, you‘ll be fine. This was all based on research. There are books that take a sane approach, but of course they are silenced by the diet companies, which have clearly paid off the medical community. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics Yeah. But there is so much research that you don't really know which one of them is actually the right now. Everything is backed up by scientific research and yet they all contradict 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder that‘s where looking into finding and bias come in. Most books don‘t tell you that. If I book doesn‘t tell me, I ignore it because they‘re trying to hide something. I‘m an academic by nature. Show me your sources. If you can‘t, your book is rubbish. If you take that approach, a whole lot (the vast majority) of those books fall away. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics I found that most people use the same source to back up different points. But yeah, you're right. The one quote I like is 'If 50 million people say something foolish, it is still foolish.' I think it fits nicely here. Lol 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder totally agree with that. We‘ve been taught to repeat total BS to the point that most people don‘t even know it‘s BS. 6y
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GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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This is still totally true. It‘s amazing how the SAME unhealthy, unrealistic, unmanageable diets keep coming back with a slight change and a new name. So few people want to believe that you need ALL food groups, ALL macros, to be healthy. It‘s instinctual, but women don‘t listen to instinct anymore. Yes, I‘m a woman. Yes, I eat carbs. Maybe that‘s why my brain is stronger than yours and I poop without cleanses. 🙄 Oi.
#thebeautymyth #fiberisacarb

BarbaraTheBibliophage Ahhh ... we inspired you! I‘m so glad you‘re reading this too. Feel free to tag me on anything you‘d like to discuss. 👏🏻👏🏻👊🏻👊🏻 6y
GingerAntics @BarbaraTheBibliophage yeah, I got it from the library while you were still reading it, but I had to finish what I was already reading. At the moment, it‘s just pissing me off, though. That‘s actually the reason I didn‘t read it when my prof suggested it back in 2014. These things usually just piss me off. It‘s not really new information. It‘s just confirmation. 6y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @GingerAntics Know what you mean. I switch between depression and anger. 6y
GingerAntics @BarbaraTheBibliophage that‘s about what I‘m feeling. I just feel like I‘ve spent so much time angry that I try to avoid it now, but maybe we ALL need to be getting angry. I vacillate between those two sentiments as well. That‘s probably the whole “good girls don‘t get angry” BS. 🙄 6y
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GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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For 32 years I‘ve been asks why I can‘t be more like “they boys” in my family (by the women in my family). Gee, I don‘t know why. I didn‘t almost flunk out of college. I have a masters degree (2/3 of the boys barely graduated with a bachelors). Somehow, both of those boys can afford an apartment, frequent road trips, etc. I can‘t afford permanent housing and I can‘t get a full time job (possibly because I can‘t afford to buy a skirt).

GingerAntics Gee, I wonder why?! 🙄 I‘m sick of blaming myself for not being as “successful” as “the boys.” They can all kiss mine. I‘m smarter than the lot (for all that will ever get me). #thebeautymyth #naomiwolf #battleofthesexes 6y
julesG Same here. It's infuriating. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG oh my god, you‘re the first person to ever say they were compared to boys before. 🤦🏼‍♀️ I knew other girls who were compared to older sisters, and I‘ve had people say “that‘s horrible/stupid/ridiculous”, but I‘ve never known anyone else who was treated the same way!!! Oh I love Litsy. Sorry we‘re in this sad little club, though. 🙄 6y
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julesG Going to a school with 90% male schoolkids did that. Also, although things were outwardly equal rights for every gender, growing up in the GDR still meant being compared. I just told my son that I competed in 100m sprints against the boys - made me the fastest girl and I'm still happy about this decision. But, how often have I heard: look what he achieved and you're stuck in your small flat,... He's making the big money, and you? 6y
GingerAntics @julesG I want to punch those people in the face. “All tings beings equal,” that wouldn‘t be the case, but all things are not equal. Men are still valued higher than women for the exact same bloody job. 🙄 6y
AlaSkaat In my family it is women who are seen as the 'bigger ones', even if one stays at home with kids with little money while her brothers makes thousands overseas. The success of one is not measured by money or education even, but by character. And even though we are equals, most men in my family/culture respect women for who they are and what they do - for themselves, them and the world. 6y
AlaSkaat They supported me through all my choices and the only reason they 'laughed' at my goals is because 'I'm too lazy to ever do anything.' And I can't even blame them for 😂😂 6y
AlaSkaat But when it comes to others- strangers, friends or even teachers, I have been shown less respect in that area. They always talk how I will never make as much money as them or someone-a man- they know. And often try to make me give it up because 'you just can't do it.' And not only that, but they never listen to anything I say because 'what can you know?' 6y
julesG @GingerAntics - even with equal pay, how often I didn't get a job I applied for although I had the same or better qualifications and a guy got it. 🙈🙈🙈 6y
GingerAntics @julesG oh yeah, been there done that. 🙄 @OleAnder oh I get that even from my mother (one of the two women who did this to me as a child). I get pissed and say “you‘re right. I wasted 3 years of my life getting a masters.” And she goes “I didn‘t know you knew that. How was I supposed to know?” Oh I don‘t know, BECAUSE I HAVE A MASTERS DEGREE IN THAT!!! 🤦🏼‍♀️ It‘s amazing how so much of this is propagated by OTHER women. 6y
julesG @OleAnder Gah! Talking people down is so annoying and infuriating. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics Oh, this is so true. If there is anything in life I hate most, it is ignorance. I can no longer listen to them. Before I would have agreed, either to end the argument or bcs my confidence was low. But now? Neither a man nor a women will say anything like this to me. I'll walk away without a glance or I will tell them straight, which ALWAYS shuts them up. It's so hard when it comes from someone who should support you most-family. 😑 6y
AlaSkaat @julesG And it always comes from those who never had to try-things were always given to them. Or from those who never will try-those who still do nothing and are happy with it. I hate, hate, hate it! 6y
GingerAntics @julesG @OleAnder exactly!!! Yes I have boobs, but I also have a brain. 🧠 Thank you very much. I stopped following ginger/redhead IG pages because ultimately they were just “hot gingers” in their underwear. “Oh look at these ‘exotic‘ women for you to ogle.” 🙄💥🔫🤦🏼‍♀️🥃 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics I noticed that redheads have become some kind of 'fantasy' to people. When they look at them, all they see is that fantasy and not a person. Goes back to how people looked at blondes as stupid. Although that still haven't changed much. 6y
julesG Wonder what that makes me? My "hormones" turned me from a blond girl into a strawberry teen and now I'm a greying brunette mum. - - - IG is so much "Photoshop" and so little reality. I follow a few yoga teachers, but it's hard to find some that do not just do splits in bikinis. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG right? Even body positive accounts turn ugly fast. Sheesh. Yeah, I really don‘t like IG, especially when it comes to body image/nutrition/reality stuff. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG it makes you a badass mum!!! That‘s what it makes you. You‘ve dealt with lunatic toddlers and survived. You‘ll survive them as lunatic teenagers, and then you‘ll be a badass mother of adults who will get to kick back and laugh when your own kids try to survive their lunatic children. It‘s free entertainment, really. 😏😂 6y
julesG Looking forward to the entertainment. 😉 6y
GingerAntics @julesG 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 6y
GingerAntics @julesG @OleAnder In related news, just saw a commercial that was going on about how “90% of women don‘t have a lip care routine.” PROBABLY BECAUSE THEY DON‘T NEED ONE!!! 🤦🏼‍♀️ Put stuff on when they‘re chapped or it‘s windy, don‘t when they are or it is not. THE END!!! 🤦🏼‍♀️ Every commercial because BS when you read this book. 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics Lol, I haven't yet read this but I already add my own comments when I watch tv, be it commercials, films, or series. I watch and end up criticising. I not only see the problem with this but with soo much more. There's been many times I have thrown my hands in frustration and left the room bcs gosh!! Also irl. I lost my tolerance. Completely. I just can't deal with so much crap! 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder it‘s amazing to realise just how much we have quietly accepted as “just how it is.” I like this knowing thing. I like this “I‘m not taking this BS anymore” thing!!! 6y
AlaSkaat @GingerAntics Verrry true. Although I hate it. It was actually easier to live with a blindfold on my eyes. Now I can barely talk to anyone without getting frustrated!! 😂 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder there is that, sadly. 6y
julesG @OleAnder Wish more people saw the problems/crap. I get frustrated so often and people around me don't care, don't get the point why I care. 6y
GingerAntics @julesG I know that feeling. “Why are you so angry?” “Why are you so upset?” “Boys will be boys.” “It‘s not that big of a deal.” 🙄 but it is. Why are we accepting this as how it is? If we all said no, it wouldn‘t be this way. Although, I have a feeling it‘s because we are all really freakin hungry. 6y
AlaSkaat @julesG @GingerAntics Unfortunately people don't like the truth. They just throw it aside. But I still think that if you just live true to yourself, it doesn't really matter what others do because it won't have much of an impact on you or your life. I stand strong by my values and beliefs and most people (the ignorant ones) stay away lol 6y
GingerAntics @OleAnder I‘ll agree with people not knowing the truth. Especially at the moment. English has a new term since 2016... “post-truth.” 🙄 6y
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GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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julesG 🙈 6y
18 likes1 comment
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GingerAntics
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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Oh my god. This wasn‘t something I came up with on my own because I hated my period? Total, life changing shock...and it‘s just the introduction. Wow.
#thebeautymyth #naomiwolf

GingerAntics @Riveted_Reader_Melissa I‘ve started. You‘ve posted so many good bits I‘m hoping I can make it through this book before it‘s due in 4 days (just in case I can‘t get an extension). 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa I‘m so glad you got it, and I‘m so glad you‘re finding great things even in the introduction!! 6y
GingerAntics @Riveted_Reader_Melissa I‘ve had it for almost three weeks. I just had SO much from the library all at once I needed to clear out some of the shorter reads first. I won‘t finish by midnight so this is officially my first nonfiction read of 2019. lol 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa Good! I hope you get as much from it as @BarbaraTheBibliophage and I did! 6y
GingerAntics @Riveted_Reader_Melissa I‘m guessing I will. It‘s a strong start already. 6y
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review
BarbaraTheBibliophage
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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Pickpick

I‘ll never look in the mirror the same way. Naomi Wolf is a scholar, philosopher, and feminist. She analyzes the details of women‘s lives across the centuries, focusing on the 20th. She discusses how the expectations of “being beautiful” have changed through the eras. And Wolf explains why a patriarchal society develops a construct like the “beauty myth.”

Full review www.TheBibliophage.com
#thebibliophage2018 #pop18 #fromacelebritybookclub

Riveted_Reader_Melissa Great review! I‘m so glad you finished before the holiday too! 6y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @Riveted_Reader_Melissa Thank you! Yes, now I‘m hoping the ARCs I‘m reading will be funny and/or light. I did decide to bag The Help and count the John Lewis book. So all my challenges are finished. Merry Christmas to me!! 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @BarbaraTheBibliophage That‘s a wonderful Christmas gift to yourself! Good for you!!! Maybe we can both read The Help next year! 6y
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BarbaraTheBibliophage @Riveted_Reader_Melissa I‘d be up for that! After Sapiens and Unmentionables...right? 🤪 (edited) 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa Sounds like a great plan to me! Just let me know if you have to shift any for Booked2019 to other seasons.😉 6y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @Riveted_Reader_Melissa I think I picked one of our books for first quarter. I just need to double check which one ... 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @BarbaraTheBibliophage Probably the first, Sapiens was the first one you mentioned for January. 6y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @Riveted_Reader_Melissa Noooo. What I mean is I picked one from our list for my Booked2019 picks. Might have been 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @BarbaraTheBibliophage Oh, ok...let me know when you remember and we‘ll move it up in line 👍 (edited) 6y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @Riveted_Reader_Melissa 👍🏻👍🏻 I‘ll check when I go back upstairs. 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @BarbaraTheBibliophage Ok, no rush! As long as you let me know by February 6y
LauraBeth I‘ve enjoyed seeing your posts about this book! 6y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @LauraBeth Thanks! Hopefully it gives you a taste of it! 6y
TiredLibrarian I loved reading your quotes from this. Thanks for sharing. 6y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @TiredLibrarian You‘re welcome! I‘m glad to know you enjoyed it. ♥️ 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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I have to love that she tied this in by the end, since it is so much in the public eye today.... whether it‘s cleansing/scrubbing beads accumulating in the waterways, or issues with talc, or our overarching environmental crisis.

#TheBeautyMyth

GingerAntics Oh I like this. It‘s completely logical. I‘m telling you, if women ran the world we wouldn‘t be in this mess. 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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I was very glad to see this in the conclusion since it came up in our discussions a few times... as one of the things that have changed since the book was published.

#TheBeautyMyth

GingerAntics This is definitely happening now. I am glad this was addressed. Men are not immune to this insanity, too. 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics I was so impressed that she called it, almost 30 years ago...it‘s the 1 thing that most people pointed out as dated! 6y
GingerAntics I guess it‘s not so dated after all. I think more women are open to the idea that we‘re being duped. I think the body positivity movement is proof of that, but I know a lot of men (husbands and fathers) that are all about body positivity for their wives and daughters, but they completely miss their own need for it. 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics Yes, sadly it‘s much more relevant than I wish it was... I wish it was more dated. 6y
GingerAntics I can agree with that. Hopefully one day, people read this book and think, “wow, people were so weird back then. So glad we‘ve evolved.” 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics Exactly what I was thinking! 6y
GingerAntics 🤞🏻 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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review
Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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Pickpick

Published in 1990 this book is still a must read for every woman, just as on point today as it was prescient then! Reading it now I can definitely see some small steps forward we‘ve made, and how some of The Beauty Myth has simply swelled in some areas to include men as well, there is so much more we need to do, and the first step is becoming aware and starting the conversations! Read it, gift it, share it!

#TheBeautyMyth

BarbaraTheBibliophage You‘re done—good for you! I‘m still at 68% or so, but know there‘s just one more actual chapter. I may not get much time until Sunday. 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @BarbaraTheBibliophage after the chapter you are in the next one is a shorter, wrap-up conclusion chapter 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @BarbaraTheBibliophage Yep, if you are on a kindle version the notes start at 82-83% 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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...”Or, if your ad revenue or your seven-figure salary or your privileged sexual status depend on it, it is an operable condition.”🤬

#TheBeautyMyth

GingerAntics 🙄 of course...so many people making money off of the opposite of this vision. 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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Naj I'm loving all your posts for this book. 😊 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Naj I‘m so glad, I feel like I‘m spamming Litsy! 6y
Naj @Riveted_Reader_Melissa Keep them coming! Reading them feels like confirmation for that all the things that felt wrong to me but I couldn't articulate or explain better. 6y
ravenlee Related - a friend is the mother of seven amazing children. During an OB visit in the seventh pregnancy, her dr grabbed a handful of loose skin at her belly and told her she‘d need to save up her money (“like other people save for vacation”) because she was going to need $10k of surgery to get her body back to where her husband would want to look at her. Amazingly, she didn‘t nut the guy, but she did find a new dr. What crap, right? 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @ravenlee That‘s horrible, and complete crap! Definitely falls into what this book talks about! There is even a section that discusses how signs of motherhood, of actually being a real woman doing woman things, are now being labeled as diseased issues that must be fixed (usually surgically), from stretch marks, to breasts changed from nursing. 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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“Health makes good propaganda. “‘ Proof that women‘s activities outside the home are detrimental to the health and welfare of themselves, their families and the country as a whole” lent impetus, writes Ann Oakley, to the nineteenth-century cult of domesticity.”

#TheBeautyMyth

Samplergal I need to read this but probably will need to double my blood pressure medication to do so. 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Samplergal It‘s actually very therapeutic...all that stuff that felt off or wrong, not quite right...It is and this explains why. So it‘s starting a great conversation and you feel less isolated. 6y
GingerAntics I always wondered about cellulite and why no one cared about it until relatively recently. 🙄 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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GingerAntics Medical Coercion...I rather like that term!!! 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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BarbaraTheBibliophage
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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@Riveted_Reader_Melissa - remember that part in #TheBeautyMyth about how looking tubercular was fashionable? Funny synchronicity, but a friend posted this image on FB. We started talking about the book and she found this article. Turns out men‘s fashion was affected by TB—but not because they tried to look sick.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-tuberculosis-shaped-victorian-...

BarbaraTheBibliophage p.s. We question the stated age (1905) of this photo. In that day, her hair wouldn‘t be down. And the wolf looks somewhat photoshopped. 6y
Leftcoastzen Looks like total photoshopped,or most edgy person of 1905! 6y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @Leftcoastzen She looks pretty modern, for sure. For me, that just proves Naomi Wolf‘s point that our “beauty” inclinations today have their roots in a millenniums-long oppression. 6y
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Chrissyreadit I love that picture though. 6y
LauraJ Fascinating link. 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa Yes! When I read the part about the TB affecting the beauty standards of the time, I immediately thought of the heroin chic phase in the 90‘s when I was growing up...popularized by the Kate Moss‘s and Fiona Apple‘s of that day. Apparently, so sickly they are weak enough to die at any moment has always been in fashion!☹️ 6y
BennettBookworm Fascinating! 6y
Chrissyreadit The link was very interesting. 6y
LibrarianRyan That pic is gorgeous but that girl has no waist. 6y
TheBookKeepers Interesting read! Thanks for sharing! 6y
JazzFeathers That was a fascinating read. Thanks so much for sharing. Though l think that the glamourisation of a disease they had no understanding of and so no weapon against was probably also a way to make it psychologically less threatening @Riveted_Reader_Melissa 6y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Leftcoastzen @Chrissyreadit @LauraJ @BennettBookworm @LibrarianRyan @TheBookKeepers @JazzFeathers My FB friend who found the pic, has also confirmed it is a contemporary photo by Polish photographer Freyja Schimkus. 6y
Chrissyreadit That makes sense! Her photos are amazing! 6y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @Chrissyreadit I went hunting on Google. She has a lot with a 19th century vibe. And, of course, the goth feel. Interesting! 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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“The thin “ideal” is not beautiful aesthetically; she is beautiful as a political solution.

The compulsion to imitate her is not something trivial that women choose freely to do to ourselves. It is something serious being done to us to safeguard political power.”
#TheBeautyMyth

GingerAntics Yup. It‘s a political solution!!! That is a wonderful way to put it. 6y
imyril Every single highlight is so on point 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @imyril I think I‘ve highlighted half the book, it is all so relevant!!! 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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“eating, to the extent that they ruminated obsessively about meals and food, collected recipes and cookbooks, and showed abnormal food rituals, such as excessively slow eating and hoarding of food related objects.”

“the majority “suffered some form of emotional disturbance as a result of semistarvation, including depression, hypochondriasis, hysteria, angry outbursts...”

(Cont. below)
#TheBeautyMyth

Riveted_Reader_Melissa .... “They became irritable, tense, fatigued, and full of vague complaints. “Like fugitives, [they] could not shed the feeling they were being shadowed by a sinister force.” For some, doctors eventually had to prescribe tranquilizers. The subjects were a group of completely normal healthy college men.” (edited) 6y
GingerAntics 🤣😂🤣 I‘m sorry they did to men when men do to women and they couldn‘t handle it. Excuse me. 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣 Sorry about that. I was enjoying the hell out of that. I wanted to say this was a really cruel study, but then I heard they did it on men instead of women and suddenly “cruel” turned into “divine justice.” Goddess bless the University of Minnesota!!! 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics I loved how they set it up...you read all about the obsessing about food, even cookbooks, about their moody and irritableness...and you‘re thinking, oh, it‘s all coming from not eating enough....and then the hit you with it was a study of men, and all those “female” attributes REALLY are from the self-depredation! 6y
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GingerAntics That was the best part. That is NOT how women are. That‘s how STARVING PEOPLE are!!! This was written in the 90‘s? I was in Minnesota when that was done. In fact, I may have been at my first elementary school which happened to be on the campus. I feel like I was there!!! 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics The book was published in 1990, I‘ll have to check and see if it says when the study was in the notes. 6y
GingerAntics Oh darn, I think that‘s the year I started school. Okay so it had already been done. Oh well. I was in the general area. lol I‘m cool with that. 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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“and endometrial cancer and osteoporosis. Fat tissues store sex hormones, so low fat reserves are linked with weak estrogens and low levels of all the other important sex hormones, as well as with inactive ovaries.

(...) “this historical linking of fatness and fertility actually makes biological sense” since fat regulates reproduction. Underweight women double their risk of low-birth-weight babies.

^Literally an unnatural weight
#TheBeautyMyth

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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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Naj The first paragraph is spot on! 6y
BarbaraTheBibliophage That last highlighted sentence! 🤬🤯😡 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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Food, choice food, and the availability to food, is status....lack of food or food denial is lower status.

#TheBeautyMyth

readordierachel Yes. Food is a socioeconomic issue. Fresh or "healthy" food is often expensive and inaccessible. 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @readordierachel Yes, and I‘m so glad as a whole we are becoming more aware of food deserts and unavailability of produce in many urban/minority centers. This book is making the case, the the constant quest for the “thinner, healthier” you that the most women try for is basically a society imposed restriction that woman aren‘t really as worthy of good plentiful food or nutrition either. She put it together so well in this book, something you can.. 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa ...see so clearly historically or economically, but never saw in yourself (or your peer group) before. 6y
readordierachel @Riveted_Reader_Melissa That's very interesting and makes a lot of sense. All the quotes you've been posting have moved this high up my tbr. 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @readordierachel It‘s definitely worth the time. I‘m doing a lot of highlighting, and finding most of it sadly still very relevant. 6y
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BarbaraTheBibliophage
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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One last quote from #thebeautymyth, then I‘m off to work and babysitting for the afternoon. For the last five years, I‘ve been a patient with a unique constellation of symptoms that didn‘t fit a typical “bucket.” This part of Wolf‘s book really struck me hard. That last quote is double-edged for me. There are some diagnoses that get no respect, and are often called “rich women‘s diseases.” Two I can think of are fibromyalgia and Lyme Disease. ⬇️

BarbaraTheBibliophage Another would be endometriosis, I think. First, I disagree with that assessment **completely.** They‘re real as real gets. But it‘s ironic and disheartening that women can be so marginalized medically, just because they are women. (edited) 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @BarbaraTheBibliophage Yes...and there are many studies that show woman‘s pain on its own isn‘t taken seriously. The newest studies of the way black women‘s pain, even in childbirth, is so ignored is incredibly saddening and just disgusting to read about. 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @BarbaraTheBibliophage I will completely agree about fibromyalgia and endometriosis...I know people with both and have read some great stories about their suffering and being ignored by family and physicians for years before they find help. I think migraines definitely fit into that group too....as well as the regular female complaints: cramps, PMD, fibroids, menopause, etc. 6y
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BarbaraTheBibliophage @Riveted_Reader_Melissa There have been so many articles and studies lately about how women‘s pain is ignored. This book explains the root cause of those attitudes perfectly. 6y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @Riveted_Reader_Melissa Oh and yes to all the other conditions you listed! 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @BarbaraTheBibliophage Isnt it sad that almost 30 years after this book cane out, with more and more studies to back it up, that this is still a thing currently happening?🤯 6y
melbeautyandbooks Oh yes! I have endometriosis & fibromyalgia & 2 rare diseases nobody has ever heard of (CVID and Still‘s). I‘ve been fortunate to have had mostly great doctors. Although, one male doctor told me to do crunches to help my back pain and patted me on the head. Literally. Went to another doctor and it turns out I had a herniated disc pressing on my sciatic nerve. No wonder crunches didn‘t help. 🤦‍♀️ 6y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @melbeautyandbooks Yikes. I‘ve had similar dismissive statements, but never a literal pat on the head. What a boar! Glad someone else was able and willing to *do his job* and find the cause of your pain. 6y
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BarbaraTheBibliophage
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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“One generation is not long enough to forget five millennia of learning how to bear being hurt. If a woman‘s sexual sense of self has centered on pain as far back as the record goes, who is she without it? If suffering is beauty and beauty is love, she cannot be sure she will be loved if she does not suffer. It is hard, because of such conditioning, to envisage a female body free of pain and still desirable.”

#thebeautymyth

CampbellTaraL That last highlighted passage just hit my chest with a solid /whomp/. 6y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @taraWritesSci I‘m telling you, this entire book has been doing that for me. Practically every page has highlights. It‘s well worth the time, if the quotes @Riveted_Reader_Melissa and I have been posting move you. 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @BarbaraTheBibliophage Yes! I‘m highlighting all over, I‘m finding it hard to not just post most of the book. 6y
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CampbellTaraL Thank you both for doing so! 6y
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BarbaraTheBibliophage
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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“One generation is not long enough to forget five millennia of learning how to bear being hurt.”

This section refers to the connection between medicine, male physicians, and women. It includes discussion of plastic surgery as a type of self-inflicted pain that replaces some of the pain previously inflicted on women by men.

#thebeautymyth

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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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...”feel guilty about female fat, because we implicitly recognize that under the myth, women‘s bodies are not our own but society‘s, and that thinness is not a private aesthetic, but hunger a social concession exacted by the community. A cultural fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience.“

#TheBeautyMyth

saresmoore Damn, that‘s good! 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @saresmoore It‘s a really good book! I definitely recommend it. 6y
saresmoore Your posts have certainly convinced me! 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa @saresmoore I have to say, for being written in the 90‘s it‘s still incredibly relevant and timely. 6y
GingerAntics I swear, I tried explaining this to my FEMALE doctor, she told me if I couldn‘t do it myself to get weight loss surgery. 🙄 She is no longer my doctor. I eat what I need to in order to fuel my body, and I didn‘t drop 100 pounds in a semester, so she wanted me to get surgery. 🙄 I really need to read this book now. I need to try not to post the book, though. I always feel like I‘m posting more than reading when it comes to books like this. lol (edited) 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics I‘ve been reading a section and highlighting as I go, then at the end of the chapter I go and try to pick out the best highlights that I can post to give kind of a feel for that part/chapter. 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics I‘m so glad you got another doctor! That would have been very unhealthy. 6y
GingerAntics She was my doctor for YEARS. From when we moved here in 2000 until 2016 when I graduated and didn‘t have insurance anymore. Sometimes I feel like no doctor is better than that doctor. 🤦🏼‍♀️ 6y
LazyDays 👏👏 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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About the 10 pounds all women say they need to lose to be happy.
“By simply dropping the official weight one stone below most women‘s natural level, and redefining a woman‘s womanly shape as by definition “too fat,” a wave of self-hatred swept over First World women (...). It suavely countered the historical groundswell of female success with a mass conviction of female failure, a failure defined as implicit in womanhood itself.”

#TheBeautyMyth

MCYmermaid 😕 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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And I‘d guess those percentages have gotten worse, sadly...since this book was written.

We are getting some curvier models, but the runways are full of tiny ladies too.

#TheBeautyMyth

ravenlee My sister once suggested that the fashion world‘s obsession with models who look like pre-pubescent boys might have something to do with the preferences of the (mostly gay male) designers. It‘s a theory. 6y
GingerAntics @ravenlee that‘s an interesting insight. It might be combination of both. “Since this is what society wants, I‘m going to do this so I like it, too.” 6y
GingerAntics I‘m with you on the idea that it‘s gotten worse since the 90‘s. It seems that the body positivity movement has got going, but in the meantime, the thigh gap has come into obsession and actresses tend to be people who are naturally very thin anyway, then they diet like crazy on top of it. 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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ravenlee Once we expand the envelope to include other eating disorders, how much worse the statistics must get! 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @ravenlee So goes down into it a bit more... with the figures from then, it was written in 1990. And it comes out to, “If we take the high end of the figures, it means that of ten young American women in college, two will be anorexic and six will be bulimic; only two will be well. The norm, then, for young, middle-class American women, is to be a sufferer from some form of the eating disease.” 6y
GingerAntics This is a sad statistic. I worked under a teacher who was also the faculty sponsor of the drill team. She showed us skirts from the 90‘s that wouldn‘t have fit her perfectly healthy (and skinny) 7 year old niece. She even have a photo of her holding one of the skirts to show the contrast. It was scary. I think the number of teens/women openly/obviously suffering has gone down. That doesn‘t mean they aren‘t still suffering though. 6y
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GingerAntics It‘s really unfortunate. 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics I agree, I think it‘s getting better, but yes when I look around I see some women who are definitely working way to hard to fit the mold yet. 6y
GingerAntics I‘ve given up. I‘m never going to have a thigh gap. I‘m always going to have a butt and thighs and whatever. 🙄 For the most part I don‘t care, but I will admit to still looking down on myself because I‘m not thin, cute, and pretty. 🤷🏼‍♀️ I‘m still brainwashed. 6y
GingerAntics And I‘m mad at myself for being brainwashed. Holy crap they‘re getting me TWICE!!! DAMN IT!!! 😡 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics YES! That‘s about exactly how I felt reading this...even if you‘ve seen through it enough that you aren‘t killing yourself trying for that myth anymore...you still have the guilt! It is really vicious! (edited) 6y
GingerAntics Bastards 6y
GingerAntics Pardon my English. lol 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics or as she says in The Handmaid‘s Tale “Nolite te Bastardes Carborundorum”. Don‘t let the bastards grind you down (edited) 6y
GingerAntics Yes!!! I can‘t ever remember all of it. I tried making it part of a Latin lesson, but it actually doesn‘t make sense in Latin. lol 6y
GingerAntics I did look up what he told her that it was a joke for school boys, and it is. It doesn‘t mean anything, but even google translate will translate it as that because it‘s this well known joke for poor children being forced to learn Latin. lol 6y
GingerAntics I‘ve never seen that article on it. I loved the classics professor. I agree, it does make a killer tattoo. lol 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics I‘m not a tattoo person, but I‘ve seen some great T-shirts with it on! 6y
GingerAntics I would love a T-shirt with that on it!!! lol I‘ve definitely seen those. 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
The Beauty Myth | Naomi Wolf
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I couldn‘t help thinking if a certain couple reading this part....🧐

#TheBeautyMyth

GingerAntics I wonder if it‘s the same couple I‘m thinking of...🤔 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics I bet it is...if you are thinking of who I‘m thinking of, he fetishizes so much his own daughter is not exempt. 6y
GingerAntics Oh god we are. I think that‘s what creeps me out the most about him. Something has to be seriously wrong with you if you think about your daughter that way. *shudder* 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics Exactly! 😳🤢🤮 6y
GingerAntics Then again, he‘s basically admitted to being something of a pedophile, but that doesn‘t seem to bother people...they‘re more concerned with other, meaningless things. (edited) 6y
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