Read The Beauty Myth Page 36


  In the past fifteen years, the industry has increased 1,600 times over and now has more outlets than McDonald’s. See Jane Caputi, The Age of Sex Crime (Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University, Popular Press, 1987).

  79 United States alone, a million dollars a day: Consumer Association of Penang, Abuse of Women in the Media (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), cited in Debbie Taylor et al., Women: A World Report, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), p. 67.

  79 British magazines, Angela Lambert, “Amid the Alien Porn,” The Independent, July 1, 1989.

  79 Swedish pornography: Gunilla Bjarsdal. Stockholm: Legenda Publishing Research, 1989.

  79 18 million U.S. men: Taylor et al., op. cit., p. 67.

  79 One American man in ten: John Crewdson, By Silence Betrayed: Sexual Abuse of Children (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), p. 249.

  79 Best read in Canada: Caputi, op. cit., p. 74.

  79 Italian pornography: The Institute for Economic and Political Studies, Italy; research by Mondadori Publishing, 1989.

  79 Increasingly violent: See Andrea Dworkin, Pornography: Men Possessing Women (New York: Putnam, 1981), especially “Objects,” pp. 101–128. On Herschel Gordon Lewis, see Caputi, op. cit., p. 91. Also, concerning competition with pornography, see Tony Garnett, director of Handgun, Weintraub Enterprises, quoted in “Rape: That’s Entertainment?,” Jane Mills, producer, Omnibus, BBC1, September 15, 1989. According to Garnett, “One of the reasons a film like this is probably financed is because there is a rape scene at the center of it. There was . . . a considerable pressure from the various distributors who controlled it. Most of the people who dealt with it were very disappointed in the film, particularly in the rape because it was not sexually exciting and I was asked if we had any offcuts that we could re-cut in to make it more sexually exciting because that sells tickets.”

  80 30 percent U.S. made: “Stars and Stripes Everywhere,” The Observer, October 8, 1989.

  80 71 percent imports: Paul Harrison, Inside the Third World: The Anatomy of Poverty (London: Penguin Books, 1980).

  80 TV ownership in India: Edward W. Desmond, “Puppies and Consumer Boomers,” Time, November 14, 1989. (In 1984 Indian advertisers began to sponsor shows.)

  80 Worldwide deregulation of airwaves: The Dutch government is concerned about satellite-based pornography and commercial TV from Luxembourg. Some European foreign ministers believe that “by the end of the next decade the US-dominated media empires will have a stranglehold on global broadcasting.” [John Palmer, “European Ministers Divided Over US ‘Media Imperialism,’” The Guardian, Oct. 3, 1989.]

  In “Review and Appraisal: Communication and Media,” a paper presented to the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women, Nairobi, 1985 (A/CONF. 116/5), a worldwide survey found that in the media, there is little representation of women’s changing roles. In Mexico, women are “the soul of the home” or the “sex object.” In Turkey, the typical woman in the media is “mother, wife, sex symbol”; the Ivory Coast emphasizes her “charm, beauty, frivolity, fragility.” Cited in Taylor et al., op. cit., p. 78.

  80 $9 billion: “Stars and Stripes Everywhere,” op. cit.

  80 Glitz blitz: “You Must Be Joking,” The Guardian, October 10, 1989.

  80 Contradictory freedoms: Cynthia Cockburn, “Second Among Equals,” Marxism Today, July 1989.

  80 Glamour: See David Remnick, “From Russia with Lycra,” Gentlemen’s Quarterly, November 1988.

  80 Reform: David Palliser: The Guardian, October 16, 1989.

  80 Negoda: “From Russia with Sex,” Newsweek, April 17, 1989.

  80 China: See “The Queen of the Universe,” Newsweek, June 6, 1988.

  80 Tatiana Mamanova: Quoted in Caputi, op. cit., p. 7.

  81 Silences: J. Winship, op. cit., p. 40.

  81 Looking intelligent: Penny Chorlton, Cover-up: Taking the Lid Off the Cosmetics Industry (Wellingborough, U.K.: Grapevine, 1988), p. 47; also Gloria Steinem, “Sex, Lies and Advertising,” Ms., September 1990.

  81 Ad pressure . . . gray hair: Michael Hoyt, “When the Walls Came Tumbling Down,” Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1990, pp. 35–40.

  81 Steinem: See Gloria Steinem, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1983), p. 4.

  82 Her lifetime: Marilyn Webb, “Gloria Leaves Home,” New York Woman, July 1988.

  82 Ten presidents: Lisa Lebowitz, “Younger Every Day,” Harper’s Bazaar, August 1988.

  82 More on advertising: Chorlton, op. cit., p. 46.

  82 Cosmetic stock: Standard and Poor’s Industry Surveys (New York: Standard and Poor’s Corp., 1988). In the United States, in 1987, the cosmetics, toiletries, and personal care products industry accounted for $18.5 billion, with cosmetics making up 27 percent of that figure; see Robin Marantz Henig, “The War on Wrinkles,” New Woman, June 1988.

  Much of the growth is due to the depressed price of petroleum derivatives, especially ethanol, which is the base of most products. “A major factor underlying the group’s performance,” according to the 1988 Standard and Poor’s Industry Surveys, “has been its favorable cost/price ratio.”

  82 Beauty editors: Chorlton, “Publicity Disguised as Editorial Matter,” in Cover-up, op. cit., pp. 46–47.

  82 Dalma Heyn: Pat Duarte, “Older, but Not Invisible,” Women’s Center News (Women’s Center of San Joaquin County, Calif.), vol. 12, no. 12 (August 1988), pp. 1–2.

  83 Bob Ciano: Quoted in ibid., p. 2.

  84 Advertising revenue: A single issue of Harper’s and Queen, in October 1988, carried £100,000 worth of ads from cosmetics companies: Gerald McKnight, The Skin Game: The International Beauty Business Brutally Exposed (London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1987), p. 65.

  84 Advertising depends on . . . dieting: Magazine Publishers of America, op. cit.

  Religion

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  88 Pray Your Weight Away!: Roberta Pollack Seid, Never Too Thin (New York: Prentice Hall, 1989), p. 107.

  90 Tradition: See Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982).

  91 Blessed . . . among women: Roman Catholic missal.

  91 Price beyond rubies: Proverbs 3:10–31.

  91 Women outnumbered men: Nancy F. Cott, The Bonds of Womanhood: Woman’s Sphere in New England, 1780–1835 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), p. 126.

  92 Ministers: See Ann Douglas, The Feminization of American Culture (New York: Knopf, 1977).

  92 Harriet Martineau: Cott, op. cit., p. 138.

  92 Morphology: Ibid., p. 139.

  93 Creation story: Genesis, 2:21–23.

  93 Be ye . . . perfect: Matthew 5:48.

  93 Wilson: Quoted in Gerald McKnight, The Skin Game: The International Beauty Business Brutally Exposed (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1989), p. 158.

  93 Second Class: Oscar Wilde, Lecture on Art, cited in Richard Ellman, Oscar Wilde (London: H. Hamilton, 1987).

  94 Neither male nor female: Galatians 3:28.

  94 Men . . . distort theirs positively: Daniel Goleman, “Science Times,” The New York Times, March 15, 1989, citing April Fallon and Paul Rozin, “Sex Differences in Perceptors of Body Size,” Journal of Abnormal Psychology, vol. 4 (1983). See also John K. Collins et al., “Body Percept Change in Obese Females After Weight Loss Reduction Therapy,” Journal of Clinical Psychology, vol. 39 (1983): All of sixty-eight eighteen-to-sixty-five-year-old women judged themselves to be fatter than they actually were.

  94 Strongly dissatisfied: “Staying Forever Young,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 12, 1988.

  94 Most weight-loss enrollment female: See Eva Szekely, Never Too Thin (Toronto: The Women’s Press, 1988).

  95 Convention: “Views on Beauty: When Artists Meet Surgeons,” The New York Times, June 20, 1988.

  95 Fragen: Ronald Fragen, “The Holy Grail of Good Looks,” The New York Times, June 29
, 1988.

  95 Rees: Dr. Thomas D. Rees with Sylvia Simmons, More Than Just a Pretty Face: How Cosmetic Surgery Can Improve Your Looks and Your Life (Boston: Little, Brown, 1987), p. 63.

  95 Niôsome: Advertisement for Niôsome Système Anti-Age.

  96 Kim Chernin: See The Obsession: Reflections on the Tyranny of Slenderness (New York: Harper & Row, 1981), p. 39.

  97 Menstruation taboos: Rosalind Miles, The Women’s History of the World (London: Grafton Books, 1988), pp. 108–109.

  99 Surveillance: Elaine Showalter, The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture, 1830–1980 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), p. 212.

  100 Watch ye therefore: Mark 13:35.

  100 Stand naked: Alexandra Cruikshank et al., Positively Beautiful: Everywoman’s Guide to Face, Figure and Fitness (Sydney and London: Bay Books, 1988), p. 25.

  100 Souls: Cott, op. cit., p. 136.

  100 Richard Stuart: Seid, op. cit., pp. 169–170.

  102 The snares of death: Psalm 116.

  106 Men cut off women: Dale Spender, Man Made Language (London and New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985). See also Laura Shapiro, “Guns and Dolls,” Newsweek, May 28, 1990, and Edward B. Fiske, “Even at a Former Women’s College, Men Are Taken More Seriously, A Researcher Finds,” The New York Times, April 11, 1990.

  107 Cult converters and hypnotists: Willa Appel, Cults in America: Programmed for Paradise (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1983).

  108 Stare fixedly: All quotes from cult members are from Appel, ibid.

  109 Massive con: McKnight, op. cit., p. 20.

  109 Herstein: Ibid., pp. 24–25.

  110 Industry insiders: Quoted in ibid., p. 74.

  110 Roddick: Quoted in ibid., pp. 55–56.

  111 Disney: Quoted in ibid., p. 17.

  111 Sugiyama: Quoted in ibid., p. 4.

  111 Kligman: Ibid., p. 39.

  111 FDA: Ibid., pp. 17–29.

  112 To punish anyone: Deborah Blumenthal, “Softer Sell in Ads for Beauty Products,” The New York Times, April 23, 1988, p. 56.

  112 Rejuvenation: British Code of Advertising, Section C.I 5.3.

  113 Day care: Felicity Barringer, “Census Report Shows a Rise in Child Care and Its Costs,” The New York Times, August 16, 1990.

  115 Women are under attack . . . 44 percent: See Diana E. H. Russell, Rape: The Victim’s Perspective (New York: Stein & Day, 1975).

  115 21 percent . . . abused: Angela Browne, When Battered Women Kill (New York: Free Press, 1987), pp. 4–5.

  115 One British woman in seven raped: Ruth E. Hall, Ask Any Woman: A London Inquiry into Rape and Assault (Bristol, U.K.: Falling Wall Press, 1985).

  115 Standard of living declines: Lenore Weitzman, “Social and Economic Consequences of Property, Alimony and Child Support Awards,” University of California Los Angeles Law Review, vol. 28 (1982), pp. 1118–1251.

  115 Child support: See Ruth Sidel, Women and Children Last: The Plight of Poor Women in Affluent America (New York: Penguin Books, 1987), p. 104.

  115 Median income: Ibid., p. 18.

  116 Harassment: See Catharine A. MacKinnon, Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of Sex Discrimination (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979); also Rosemarie Tong, Women, Sex and the Law (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1984).

  116 Women make . . .: Sidel, op. cit., p. 17.

  117 Divorce rate: Debbie Taylor et al., Women: A World Report (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), p. 13.

  118 Food: Linda Wells, “Food for Thought,” The New York Times Magazine, July 30, 1989.

  120 Fetal tissue: McKnight, op. cit., p. 84.

  120 Prices: Quoted in Linda Wells, “Prices: Out of Sight,” The New York Times Magazine, July 16, 1989.

  120 Cost of product: Quoted in McKnight, op. cit., p. 66.

  121 Cults: Appel, op. cit., pp. 113–137. See also Chernin, op. cit., pp. 35–36, on cults.

  122 Set a watch: Based on Psalm 141:3.

  125 Weight Watchers: WW international statistics, Dutch Viva, September 1989.

  125 Appel, op. cit., p. 1–21.

  126 Ibid., p. 31.

  126 Ibid., p. 50.

  126 Ibid., p. 59.

  127 Ibid., p. 61.

  127 Ibid., p. 64.

  127 Ibid., p. 133.

  127 Ibid., 72.

  130 Lasch: See Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations (New York: Warner Books, 1979).

  Sex

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  131 Kinsey: Alfred Kinsey et al.: Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Co., 1953); cited in Debbie Taylor et al., Women: A World Report (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), p. 62.

  131 Destroying it: Rosalind Miles, The Women’s History of the World (London: Paladin Grafton Books, 1988), p. 115.

  132 Sex is learned: See Elaine Morgan, The Descent of Woman (New York: Bantam Books, 1972), pp. 76, 77. According to Morgan:

  “You might imagine that copulation was such a basic and ‘instinctive’ process that it would be very little affected by learning and imitation . . . but as far as sex is concerned, you would be wrong, at least about primates. Harlow and Harlow’s experiments in the 1950’s proved beyond doubt that if a baby monkey is reared in isolation, unable either to experiment with coevals or to observe its elders copulating (which young primates do, with great curiosity and often at hamperingly close quarters, whenever they can), then, when it grows up, it hasn’t got the faintest idea how to go about it, and if it is a male, it dies without issue.”

  136 Jack Sullivan: Quoted in Jane Caputi, The Age of Sex Crime (Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1987), p. 63.

  136 Siskel: Quoted ibid., p. 84. Life and art converged in the 1980s: In the novel Confessions of a Lady Killer, a sex killer stalks feminists; Tightrope, the hero fantasizes strangling a feminist rape-crisis counselor; in December 1989, a man shot fourteen young women in Canada, shouting, “I hate feminists.”

  137 France: “French Without Fears,” The Observer (London), September 17, 1989.

  137 Screen Actors Guild: “Actresses Make Less Than Men, New Study Says,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 2, 1990.

  138 Next to Time: Susan G. Cole, Pornography and the Sex Crisis (Toronto: Amanita Enterprises, 1989), p. 37.

  138 The authorities in Sweden: Anita Desai, “The Family—Norway,” in Taylor et al., op. cit., p. 24.

  138 Spare Rib censored: Caroline Harris and Jennifer Moore, “Altered Images,” Marxism Today, November 1988, pp. 24–27.

  139 Judy Chicago: Jonetta Rose Barras, “U.D.C.’s $1.6 Million Dinner,” The Washington Times, July 18, 1990.

  139 Canadian women’s film was banned: Caputi, op. cit., p. 72.

  140 Fantasy lives: Taylor et al., op. cit., p. 66.

  141 Less likely to believe a rape victim: Neil M. Malamuth and Edward Donnerstein, eds., Pornography and Sexual Aggression (New York: Academic Press, 1984).

  141 Desensitizing: Dolph Zillman and Jennings Bryant, “Pornography, Sexual Callousness and the Trivialization of Rape,” Journal of Communication, vol. 32 (982), pp. 16–18.

  141 Trivialize the severity: Donnerstein and Linz: “Pornography: Its Effect on Violence Against Women,” in Malamuth and Donnerstein, eds., op. cit., pp. 115–138.

  141 Violence alone: Edward Donnerstein and Leonard Berkowitz, “Victim Reactions in Aggressive Erotic Films as a Factor in Violence Against Women,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol. 41, (1981), pp. 710–724.

  141 Wendy Stock, “The Effects of Pornography on Women,” testimony for the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, 1985.

  141 Carol L. Krafka, “Sexually Explicit, Sexually Violent and Violent Media: Effects of Multiple Naturalistic Exposures and Debriefing on Female Viewers,” doctoral thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1985.

  143 Consumerism: Barbara Ehrenreich, Elizabeth Hess, and Gloria Jacobs, Re-Making Love: The Feminization of S
ex (London: Fontana/Collins, 1986), p. 110.

  146 Orgasm: For statistics on orgasm, see Shere Hite, The Hite Report (London: Pandora Press, 1989), pp. 225–270.

  146 Kaplan: Helen Singer Kaplan, The New Sex Therapy (New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1974).

  147 Seymour Fischer: See Understanding the Female Orgasm (New York: Bantam Books, 1973).

  147 British women: Wendy Faulkner, “The Obsessive Orgasm: Science, Sex and Female Sexuality,” in Lynda Birke et al., Alice Through the Microscope (London: Virago Press, 1980), p. 145. See also R. Chester and C. Walker, “Sexual Experience and Attitudes of British Women,” in R. Chester and J. Peel, Changing Patterns of Sexual Behaviour (London: Academic Press, 1979).

  147 Danish women: K. Garde and I. Lunde, “Female Sexual Behaviour: A Study of a Random Sample of Forty-Year-Old Women,” Maturita, vol. 2 (1980).

  147 Sudanese women: A. A. Shandall, “Circumcision and Infibulation of Females,” Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum; cited in Taylor et al., op. cit., p. 61.

  149 Foolishly decides: Alice Walker, “Coming Apart,” in You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981), pp. 41–53.

  149 I fantasize: Nancy Friday, My Secret Garden: Women’s Sexual Fantasies (London: Quartet Books, 1985), p. 147.

  150 Strongly dissatisfied: Dr. Thomas Cash, Diane Cash, and Jonathan Butters, “Mirror-Mirror on the Wall: Contrast Effects and Self-Evaluation of Physical Attractiveness,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol. 9 (3), September 1983.

  150 Hutchinson: Jane E. Brody, “Personal Health,” The New York Times, October 20, 1988.

  153 The old man kissed her: Miles, op. cit., pp. 97, 141.

  158 Swept away: see Carol Cassell, Swept Away: Why Women Confuse Love and Sex (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984); for a psychoanalytic explanation of the overdetermination of the female body, see Dorothy Dinnerstein, Sexual Arrangements and the Human Malaise, (New York: Harper Colophon, 1977).

  159 48.7 percent of U.S. abortions: “Paths to an Abortion Clinic: Seven Trails of Conflict and Pain,” The New York Times, May 8, 1989.