After searching the Internet for books about women and history, I came across The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women by Naomi Wolf. I was immediately intrigued by the title and, ironically, the cover of the book. It features a figurine of a woman in underwear examining herself in the mirror. The image is quite powerful as the figurine depicted is not that of a thin woman. She clearly has curves and shorter hair, which doesn't match the preconceived idea of ​​beauty we already have imprinted in our brains. This courageous choice is what ultimately led me to read Wolf's analysis of beauty and its effects on women. After making this decision I did some further research to learn about its impact on the literary world. I discovered that the book had been a favorite among women for years. Many reviews describe it as a must-read for all women surviving in modern Western society. Throughout the book Wolf argues that the concept of beauty is entirely socially manufactured as an indirect way for the Western world to remain a patriarchal society. “'Beauty' is a monetary system like the gold standard. Like any economy, it is determined by politics, and in the modern era in the West it is the latest, best belief system that keeps male dominance intact” (12). Its basic premise is that as women have gained greater social power and acclaim, the expectation that women succumb to certain standards of physical beauty has increased dramatically. “The enthusiasm with which the labor market has assigned financial value to marriage market qualifications demonstrates that the use of the beauty myth is political and not sexual: the labor market has perfected the beauty myth as a way to legitimize the 'occupation... middle of paper...in my opinion, Wolf has gone above and beyond in her research on the subject. Although her book focuses primarily on the effects of the beauty myth on the Western world, it still addresses different points of view from around the world. There was still some apparent bias due solely to the fact that she is a woman, however I thought all of her sources and facts were very reliable because she approached her topic from all different sides of the issue, while still staying true to her thesis. Overall I enjoyed reading Wolf's work. It was overwhelming at times to read so much factual information at once, but I found his writing to be very organized and well structured. As a woman I found the text very inspiring, creating a new perspective on myself and femininity that I had never seen before. The book was a very powerful and inspiring read that I found very rewarding.