To ask women to become unnaturally thin is to ask them to relinquish their sexuality.
Meaning of the quote
This quote means that when people tell women they must be extremely thin, it's like asking them to give up their natural, healthy sexuality. Our bodies are meant to have curves and shapes, not to be super skinny. Being unnaturally thin can make a woman feel like she's not allowed to be a confident, sexual person. The author is saying we should celebrate women's bodies as they are, not force them to change in ways that don't feel true to themselves.
More quotes from Naomi Wolf
No matter what a woman’s appearance may be, it will be used to undermine what she is saying and taken to individualize – as her personal problem – observations she makes about the beauty myth in society.
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Pain is real when you get other people to believe in it. If no one believes in it but you, your pain is madness or hysteria.
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Western women have been controlled by ideals and stereotypes as much as by material constraints.
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Most urgently, women’s identity must be premised upon our “beauty” so that we will remain vulnerable to outside approval, carrying the vital sensitive organ of self-esteem exposed to the air.
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‘Beauty’ is a currency system like the gold standard. Like any economy, it is determined by politics, and in the modern age in the West is is the last, best belief system that keeps male dominance intact.
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Women have face-lifts in a society in which women without them appear to vanish from sight.
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To ask women to become unnaturally thin is to ask them to relinquish their sexuality.
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