Blog #8

The end of The Beauty Myth puts the pressure on the reader to change society. To make it better. To make the world a truly equal place no matter the gender. It was a nice transition from the rest of the book, as much of it to me felt like Wolf, ranting endlessly and divulging onto tangents. Much of her ranting comes together with the point that women are wrongfully stereotyped and held back. She pushes her rant-like text into a relentless call to all genders, in all locations, and in all times to pursue their dreams and strive for equality despite the circumstances. In this regard, the end of the book is very compelling and presents a worthwhile push to action. Much of the rest of the book was hard to get through, because it does at times seem like Wolf is droning on about the same “oppression” and there were a few times that it felt like Wolf was herself stereotyping women to be all the type that desire to hold powerful positions and have equality in everything. There are women, though, that hold their roles in the home as more valuable and desirable than at work or who desire to do nothing that stay home and be a housewife, and at times it seemed like Wolf forgot about this group of women. But the end of the book seemed to try to steer away from that. The reading by Valenti makes a lot of the same points of not conforming to society and being who you are, but Valenti makes these points in a very different way. For one thing, Valenti uses a lot of shock techniques with her use of generally considered curse words. She does seem like she is ranting a lot more than Wolf. But while Valenti is ranting about the state of what should be beautiful for women based on her experiences, Wolf gives a much more broad picture of the world that women must live in. Wolf also argues in a more objective rant style, portraying many different sides of the issue and many different people’s experiences. Also, the biggest difference between the two is that while Wolf calls upon all genders to change society and make it equal (and blames men mostly for the state of the poor beauty image state), Valenti calls upon women specifically to change society and to begin by loving themselves and other women (as she had blamed women for the poor image of beauty). The women do agree, though, that the current state of the beauty myth is horrible and needs to be fixed as soon as possible. Both direct women to pursue whatever is important to them and that no matter what it was (be it work, school, home, whatever) they should pursue it with the greatest intent and break through all the stereotypes associated with them. There is a song by the band Superchick called Anthem and it’s lyrics read like this:

We are fire inside, we are lipstick and cleats
We are not going home, we are playing for keeps
We are girls with skinned knees, we are concrete and grace
We are not what you think, you can't keep us in our place

Here's to the girls on their boards with bruises and scars
Here's to the girls whose fingers bleed from playin guitar
Here's to anyone who never quit when things got hard
You'll never let them say you'll never get that far

We are fire inside, we are an army asleep
We are a people awaking to follow their dreams
We don't have time for your games
We have our own goals to score
There are trophies to win instead of being one of yours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrDA5-uD01g

These lyrics ring true no matter what women are facing. They encourage them to push beyond and never give up reaching for what they want. And it also seems to fit well with the message of both authors about fighting for what you want. I also found a website dedicated to listing songs and lyrics about gender stereotypes and issues that would make both proud that someone is trying to make people aware of the gender problems in society.(http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/arts/gender_songs.html)

Music is one of the most ascribed to sources for entertainment. I think it carries the potential to become a prime source to reach the masses and affect change in society. Many of the songs listed dealt with the issues of different genders body image. There were some songs about the color of women’s faces and the shape of their bodies and growing past that simple image. These songs are very reflective of the three essays “Becoming La Mujer,” “My Brown Face,” and “The Butt: Its Politics, Its Profanity, Its Power.” All of these essays are true life experiences that women went through in their search for body image peace and gender equality. All three were great, enough that there is no way to pick a favorite out of the three. If only all women, and men, could read these essays, Naomi Wolf’s call to action, and the messages in music presented to them everyday, then there could in fact be a rapid change in different genders view of each other and view of themselves.