Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth. New York: W. Morrow, 1991. Print.

Notes whilst reading:

• "The professional beauty qualification reinforces the double standard", which works as a constant reminder that men do not need to try as hard, as they are already worth more/
• "The beauty myth generates low self esteem for women and high profits for corporations as a result". This is because women did not have the confidence to question their lower pay, lack of promotions and used what little money they did earn, to buy products to 'improve' their appearance and thus their confidence.
• With all the ideals, expectations and hard work that women had to put up with just to feel equal to their male counterparts, they were literally too tired and worn out for "the kid of social activism or freewheeling thought that would allow them to question and change the structure itself". 
• "A beautiful heroine is a contradiction in terms, since heroism is about individuality, interestng and ever changing while 'beauty' is generic, boring, and inert"
• "beauty without intelligence or intelligence without beauty" - mind OR body?

After the war, when the men returned to their jobs, they assumed that women would "meekly return to their ageless mission as wives and mothers". This was not the case however and a survey found that "61 to 85% of women" did not want to go back to just doing housework after the war. As female workers were paid less than the returned veterans, there was a threat that businesses would keep them instead as in one respect, economically it made sense. However, women were still not regarded as an equal gender, so it would have lead to "political unrest" due to a shift in the social/power balance and possibly "a repeat of the Depression". 

"Women's magazines for over a century have been one of the most powerful agents for changing women's roles" - it can be debated whether this was a positive thing however. They (magazines) "consistently glamorized whatever the economy needed, their advertisers, and, during war time, the government, needed at that moment from women". In one respect, this was a good thing - women's magazines showed that they could unite women into the workforce. However, the downside is that whatever the magazines were telling women to do, it was strengthening the beauty myth, gender stereotypes and the patriarchy. If women's magazines hadn't portrayed the "ideal" housewife, motherr or "glamorous" working woman, then woman subject to these magazines would not have been so critical of their self-worth.

In the 1950s, women's magazines depicted the "ideal housewife", looking "glamorous" and happy using brand new household appliances. Once again, this was because the magazines were being paid to make women believe in these new, post war ideals. On one hand, the new appliances being advertised were supposed to make household chores faster and easier. On the other hand, the fact that they were marketed towards women only reinforced gender stereo types that these were "women's jobs". The sheer amount of "specialist" appliances on the market could have also resulted in women feeling like they had more housework as there were new appliances being developed for numerous different jobs. 

As so much revenue was generated from selling household products to women who didn't work, once women did eventually start to go to work and the needs of society changed, magazines became about beauty products and new "effective" ways to reach all new "ideals". In effect, the beauty myth was a backlash of women trying to break away from society's gender constructs. 

"The beauty myth simply took over the function of Friedan's 'religion' of domesticity".