The Beauty Myth (46 page)

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.

Page

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).

Page

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: