The Beauty Myth

Eugenics is a method of encouraging genetically desirable traits and discouraging undesirable counterparts to improve the population. Eugenics arose in the 20th century and typically has strong, negative connotations. It is a discredited pseudoscience that was born out of racial prejudice. It is linked with such historic examples as Nazi Germany, which sought to create a genetically superior, Aryan nation by exterminating Jews, Roma, and other peoples of non-Western heritage, as well as disabled people and political dissidents. 

Feminism is a broad term that describes the struggle for women’s equality. It ranges from basic labor rights to deconstructing patriarchal cultural norms within the West and beyond.

“Feminine mystique” is the concept introduced by the second-wave feminist Betty Friedan in her eponymous 1963 book. The concept refers to the set of assumptions about women’s social roles, such as reducing femininity to the private sphere of domesticity and child-rearing rather than political engagement and education.

The Iron Maiden is (supposedly) a medieval torture device, in which the victim was enclosed in a human-shaped, hollow case with spikes on the inside. Its proliferation and use are debated. Wolf uses the term as a metaphor for the type of psychological and physical torture that women undergo in their attempts to adhere to the beauty myth.

LGBTIQA+ refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning, asexual, and other individuals.

Patriarchy is a broad term that refers to societies in which men hold the dominant political, economic, and social power, whereas women do not.

One Stone Solution is a term that Wolf introduced to describe women’s self-perception of being one British stone (14 pounds) away from their ideal weight. This concept came from the commodified beauty ideology to benefit the lucrative diet-and-exercise industry.

Professional Beauty Qualification, PBQ, is a term Wolf coined to discuss what she calls an institutionalization of conventional beauty requirements as a condition for employment and promotion. Wolf’s PBQ is not to be confused with standard workplace usage of PBQ: performance-based questions. These are used in the workplace to evaluate a candidate’s capacity for problem-solving.

Second-wave feminism was a movement that took place roughly in the 1960s and 1970s in the West. These feminists sought rights such as equality in the realms of education and the workplace, as well as reproductive rights. This movement rose as women continued to gain greater representation in the public sphere: politics, activism, and the workplace.

The Surgical Age is a term that Wolf coined to describe the rise of the lucrative cosmetic surgery industry. This industry is bolstered by the beauty myth which exerts psychological control over women making them feel perpetually imperfect and anxious.