Naomi Wolf and Flawed Arguments

In 1991 noted feminist author Naomi Wolf wrote the book The Beauty Myth. In which she examines beauty as a demand and judgment upon women. She goes onto explain that women in western culture are hurt by the pressure to conform to an idealized concept of female beauty. It is a book that has inspired many young women to take up the fight for equality.

However, her book, The Beauty Myth contains several flawed arguments. There are three errors that stand out noticeably. The first problem is that many of the statistics listed in her book are wrong. The second issue is her argument that many older feminists have burned out and that many younger women don't want to take up the fight. And finally, Wolf seems set on specifically blaming men, and men's institutions for the existence and perpetuation of the beauty myth.

Like any good author, Wolf uses facts and statistics to try and support her (beauty myth) theory. For example, Wolf seems to focus on statistics relating to anorexia nervosa, a well-known eating disorder. On the surface this seems like a sound basis to her argument. Anorexia is often associated with women feeling pressured to look a certain way. To achieve this look they literally starve themselves to death. This seems to fit right in with Wolf's idea of the beauty myth, except for one fatal mistake: as Casper Schoemaker of the Trimbos Institute points out, all but five of her twenty-three statistics were grossly exaggerated. For instance Wolf states in her book that 7.5% of American women are suffering from anorexia, this sort of number lends a sense of urgency to her writing. But when one looks carefully, one finds that the true number is closer to 0.065% (Schoemaker 99). That means that Wolf's number was 115 times higher than the true figure.