Читать книгу Dr Eve's Sex Book: A Guide for Young People - Marlene Wasserman - Страница 17

The sexual revolution of the sixties and the feminist movement of the seventies brought major changes to women’s lives and shifted relationships between men and women significantly. Blame the feminist movement when a girl tells you she wants to be treated as your equal, when she feels entitled to earn the same salary as you for the same job. She must be a young woman who has a great sense of her own worth!

However, much of the benefit of the sexual revolution and the feminist movement has been undermined by the beauty myth. Throughout history society has had standards of beauty, but at no time before has there been such an intense media blitz telling us what we should look like. The beauty myth tells a story: women must want to embody it, and men must want to possess women who embody it. Think about any advertisement. It will have a gorgeous woman in it, with a lot of her flesh exposed. She will be draped seductively over the advertised car, boat or bed. The media is using her sexuality to sell a product – what an insult to all the pride that feminism instilled in women!

The “ideal” female body has been stripped down to being an object and is on display everywhere. Women are given graphic details of perfection against which to measure themselves. Watching MTV is scary stuff – you mean I should look like that? Both guys and girls anxiously scrutinise their bodies in minute detail. They believe they have to have that face, that body, to score a partner and be successful.

Guys are in a bit of a crisis with this beauty myth. They are mostly interested in women’s bodies and too often don’t actually get to see and know girls for who they really are. They are being taught that a woman’s value lies in her beauty. They watch guys in the media who embody the beauty myth and they too want to look like the strong, handsome dude who owns the house, car and credit cards – because he’s the one who gets the girls.

Pain and hunger set in for both men and women. Literally. Eating disorders are testimony to the beauty myth.

What happens when you open your favourite glossy magazine? You may feel simultaneously infuriated and seduced. You could be grateful to escape temporarily into this paradise where you are the centre of the Universe. I want, I want… At the same time you could be outraged that unobtainable standards of wealth, luxury and beauty exclude you and most men and women that you know. You want to look beautiful. Yet one tends to think that wanting to look beautiful is about the dumbest goal one could have.

As an emerging adult you are responsible for sifting, questioning, being hyperalert to the messages about beauty you are receiving. Think of beauty differently. Yes, physical beauty is to be admired but it really is skin-deep, fades with time and is most definitely no guarantee of a great life as an adult.