The Beauty Myth

Second-wave feminism in the US emerged in the 1960s in response to post-World War II cultural expectations for women. Mainstream narratives perpetuated by TV, film, and advertising idealized female domesticity, and many middle-class women who worked during the war were fired as men returned from the war front. Betty Friedan’s 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is generally considered the beginning of second-wave feminism. Friedan argued against this push for domesticity, and feminists advocated for women’s inclusion in the public sphere and organized for legal reforms that promoted gender equality. Many feminist gains were made during the 1960s and 70s, including but not limited to: the FDA approving oral contraceptives (1960); the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (1974) which allowed women to have their own lines of credit; and Roe v. Wade (1973), which legalized abortion nationwide.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s the movement’s focus shifted to social issues. Activists split into two camps during the feminist sex wars. Anti-pornography feminists such as Andrea Dworkin, Catherine MacKinnon, Robin Morgan, and Gail Dines believed that pornography and sex work are inherently misogynistic. They advocated for outlawing pornography and sex work, claiming that these systems are part of a cultural cycle of violence against women. On the other side were sex-positive feminists, who acknowledged that many women enter sex work and pornography due to coercion but argued that these institutions are not inherently sexist. They advocated for sexual liberation and women’s rights to choose what to do with their bodies. Sex-positive feminists like Ellen Willis, Gayle Rubin, and Wendy McElroy also argued that outlawing pornography violates free speech and viewed attempts to do so as authoritarian. The mainstream feminist movement fractured because of these differences in viewpoints, and with many believing that feminism achieved its goals due to legal reforms, second-wave feminism fizzled.

Notably, Black feminism evolved during second-wave feminism but was often ignored by mainstream, white feminists. Black feminists expressed frustration with mainstream feminism’s goals, which prioritized legal and social battles for middle-class white women without considering the contexts and needs of Black women and other marginalized women. Black feminists critiqued The Feminine Mystique and other movements that focused on bringing women to the workforce because working-class women of color had always worked, particularly in low-paid, devalued jobs. Likewise, they argued that advocating for women’s participation in wage labor without changing the underlying capitalist class structure perpetuates inequality; whereas white women performed unpaid domestic labor before, they hired women of color to do their domestic labor for low pay when they entered the workforce. Black feminists argued that feminism that leaves some women behind will not achieve lasting change.

Theorists like Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, and the members of the Combahee River Collective also highlighted the disparity in reproductive justice narratives. Whereas white women prioritized access to contraceptives and abortion, Black feminists highlighted the fact that women of color faced forcible sterilization by the state. For example, the US government forcibly sterilized one-third of all Puerto Rican women between the 1930s and 1970s (Floritz Z. Louis de Malave “Sterilization of Puerto Rican Women: A Selected, Partially Annotated Bibliography” University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1999). These feminists acknowledged the freedom brought by contraceptives and abortion but argued for a reproductive justice framework in which all women could decide when, how, and if they became parents—including the freedom to have children absent of an oppressive state apparatus.

In the aftermath of the sex wars, Black feminists began creating the framework for intersectional feminism, one of the key tenets adopted by the budding third wave. In 1984, bell hooks wrote Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center which emphasized the experiences of women on the margins of society and specified that the fight is against “white supremacist capitalist patriarchy” (bell hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, 51). In 1989, legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” to describe the different sites of oppression that marginalized people experience. While these terms emerged in the 1980s, Black feminists like Davis, Lorde, and Patricia Hill Collins wrote about how race and class affect the way women experience gender.

Third-wave feminism is said to have emerged from early 1990s riot grrl culture, a punk subculture in the Pacific Northwest. Bands like Bikini Kill were vocal about sexual violence against women as well as discrimination within punk scenes. Mainstream discussions about gender equality reemerged with Anita Hill’s sexual harassment trial against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991. With this, much of the third wave focused on consciousness-raising. Women who grew up with the second wave’s achievements already in place often thought that feminism was useless, or that it had already achieved its goals; consciousness-raising efforts educate new generations about feminism’s achievements and the way patriarchy continues to affect society, such as the prevalence of rape culture and violence against women. Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth is part of this consciousness-raising tradition as it highlights the patriarchal undertones in seemingly apolitical things like makeup, cosmetic surgery, and advertising.

Intersectionality, diversity, and individuality were core tenets of third-wave feminism. As feminists began focusing on non-white experiences of femininity, discourses emerged such as queer theory, trans feminism, postmodern feminism, and post-colonial feminism. Much discourse shifted the focus from intrinsic ideas of femininity and womanhood to questions about gender in general. For example, Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble was published in 1990 and focused on gender as a culturally constructed concept that is performed and recreated. Along with Wolf, Butler, and hooks, other key third-wave feminists include Gloria Anzaldúa, Cherríe Moraga, and Elizabeth Wurtzel.

While discussions about diversity and individuality were welcome additions to the third wave, some argue that there is an overemphasis on individuality over collective action in contemporary feminism. Often called “choice feminism,” this is considered a misunderstanding of feminism as a liberatory framework; stripped of collective or theoretical context, all choices made by women come to be considered empowered. Wolf touches on this phenomenon in The Beauty Myth and warns that adhering to the beauty myth shouldn’t be confused with liberation, especially since beauty is a shifting construct that requires constant attention and contortion to attain. Post-colonial and anti-imperialist feminists also highlight the limitations of a “women supporting women” framework or simply transferring great man theory to women as women leaders often perpetuate harm against marginalized women.

In the absence of an activist framework, third-wave feminism experienced some of the same fracturing as earlier waves. Some consider the United States to be in a fourth wave that began in 2012. This wave is characterized by an even greater emphasis on diversity in terms of race, gender, and international contexts. Third- and fourth-wave feminism alike are characterized by global communication and social media. Social media and internet communication have brought international feminist issues such as femicide, female genital mutilation, and imperialist violence to the fore. Another feature of fourth-wave feminism is sharing personal stories to affect social change. The most prominent example of this is #MeToo, a movement started in 2017 against sexual harassment, assault, and rape culture in which women share their experiences of sexual violence. While global in scale, #MeToo builds on the feminist tradition of sharing personal narratives to affect change. For example, Naomi Wolf shared her story of sexual harassment by her Yale Professor, Harold Bloom, in 2002.

Contemporary feminism is still contending with patriarchal beauty expectations as outlined by Wolf in The Beauty Myth. While Wolf’s emphasis on advertising and religion remains relevant, social media adds a new dimension to 21st-century beauty ideology, as explored in the Themes section of this guide.