The Beauty Myth Essay

Humans encompass great achievements and inspire change to the status quo at an alarming rate, however we drop the ball on a multitude of areas when it comes to social equality. One of those areas being The Beauty Myth that confine women to a man’s institution in a patriarchal society, which creates a variety of social problems. Today I would like to compare the ideals of the Beauty Myth and compare them to Delaney’s writing in the chapter titled Food for Thought, and specifically focus in on the section, Of Meat and Men, showing the similarities between the food we eat and our gender. First, in Naomi Wolf’s, The Beauty Myth, I was introduced to a perspective that I never actually had before reading this piece. Never had I imagined that the way we view American culture today is

Moreover, she gives the idea of a dog in the US as well as in Britain, the dog is sacred “a man’s best friend”, but in other countries dogs are eaten, “What is considered food by one person or culture is considered inedible to another, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison,” as the old adage succinctly states.” (Delaney) Nevertheless, the section that hit me the most from the chapter would have to be the section titled, Of Meat and Men, which talked about what eating meat signifies, “People with power have always eaten meat” (Adams 1991: 26), and that implies only class distinctions, but also gender.” (Delaney) In addition, Of Meat and Men, goes on to talk about how soldiers in WWII ate two-and-a-half times as much meat as the average American citizen, and talks about how patriarchal societies, have men eat before anyone else is served. This short section describes the cultural beliefs of meat being a sacred food that is to be consumed by men, and makes women a symbol of meat to men, similar to what we see in Wolf’s