Education

Education plays a huge role in both The Beauty Myth and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.  In The Beauty Myth, it is constantly reminded that women need to know about the stereotypes of women and how the media influences society.  Naomi Wolf urges the importance of speaking about the beauty myth: "For any one women to outgrow the myth, she needs the support of many women" (282).  This means that unless women are talking with each other about their insecurities they will not be able to overcome them.  A Vindication of the Rights of Women states that women in general need to be educated in order to be seen as virtuous in society.  Mary Wollstonecraft believes that "ignorance is a frail base for virtue!" (70).  It is amazing to me that two books, one from the 1990s, and the other from the 1700s can be compared on the same subject.  The sad part is that even virtuous and educated women are suffering from the effects of the beauty myth.  The biggest difference between these two books is that The Beauty Myth separates men and women, while A Vindication of the Rights of Women wants women to be exactly like men.

A Vindication of the Rights of Women has me thinking about how little progress has been made over hundreds of years.  The fact that this subject of women in society is still an argument makes me what to do as Naomi Wolf says and tell people about the issue at hand.  The other night I was showing my best friend from home pictures of ads of women that were completely offensive and degrading.  She was extremely interested by it and kept asking for more examples of how the media effects how women perceive themselves.  By educating my friend about this subject, I am already helping to remove the beauty myth from our culture.  Maybe by educating everyone, one day society could chance and women can be beautiful in their own ways.