Rating: 
Summary: Biased.
Review: Reading this book was very torturous in some ways. Naomi Wolf presents extremely biased viewpoints based on one-sided facts. She completely disregards the role the other sciences (biology, etc) play in beauty with only a few paragraphs. I suggest taking her statistics and facts with a large grain of salt. She tends to focus on the superficial parts of a research that fits her support then disregard the general conclusions. This book, however, does address real issues that we face today. I recommend doing your own research and reading other books to provide a more well-rounded prespective. Survival of the Prettiest, The masculine mystique, etc
Rating: 
Summary: crafty, well researched, honest
Review: much needed book... still.
Body image, starvation, handicap...
the only thing that bothered me was the absence of explanation about the ROOT. According to Wolf, both genders are being manipulated by the idea of lethal looks... but who? why?
She, however, describes the "how" extremely well.
Rating: 
Summary: ...
Review: The existence of Ru Paul and "lipstick lesbians" blows the femnazi claim that beauty was created to opress women out of the water. If beauty was a concept designed to opress, then why would men and supposedly liberated women subject themselves to it? Evolutionary Psychology and evolution in general defies feminism, though feminism has never really been attentive to empirical evidence (observe how recent feminists claim that reason and science are instuments of male opression -- seems to me feminists subconsciously want to return the Victorian age -- women are supposedly irrational and apparently incapable of choosing if they want to have sex either, this being the claim that all heterosexual sex is rape.) Female beauty probably emerged as a means to attract vision-driven men. It seems only to give credulence to the theory that extreme left wingers and extreme right wingers are basicly the same, when one observes that feminists, by opposing beauty, fall into the same camp as Calvinists and fanatical Muslims. "Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault" -Oscar Wilde
Rating:
Summary: The David Foster Wallace of contemporary feminism
Review: Among other highlights, Ms. Wolf claimed in the original hardcover version of this book that the number of American women who died of anorexia each year was roughly three times greater than the total number of American men who died in Viet Nam during that war's twelve year course. (She had roughly 150,000 American women each year starving themselves to death. She was off by, at the very least, 149,600. Probably more. Any self-respecting scholar would have killed herself at this point. Not our Ms. Wolf.) It gets worse. Soon after publication, Naomi did a lengthy photo spread where she posed and frolicked for pages and pages in a 'women's magazine' sans irony. When the mind-boggling hypocrisy of this -- posing for a fashion magazine when she was out berating the fashion industry for destroying the lives of young women -- was pointed out to her she threw a legendary tantrum on the television news show '20/20'. Trust someone who lived through the times, it represented perhaps the nadir of progressive politics in the last twenty years. An ugly, illuminating moment that, among other things, provided the loathsome Rush Limbaugh with material he was still using as recently as last year's Presidential Campaign. This women is a disgrace to feminism -- and I say that as a feminist. At her best, she's an idiot. A huckster so ignorant of the history of intellectual thought that she is able to bounce back from each disgrace, confident that as a nice person she can be neither a fraud nor an incompetent. Quite simply, she is the David Foster Wallace of the women's movement. In a manner worthy of Stalin many of the more ludicrous statistics, outright errors, misstatements of fact and rambling personal digressions found in the original version of this 'classic' tome have been wiped out without any comment or apology in this new edition. This, too, is despicable. Yet it remains a very silly, rather appalling book. What else is there to add? The fact that the author of this work still has a career says more about the importance of looks, social connections and a degree from Yale -- not to mention the sorry state of intellectual life in this country -- than almost anything I can think of. Read Christina Hoff Sommer's fine 'Who Stole Feminism?' for more of the ugly story behind this odious book.
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting read
Review: Naomi Wolf has written a passionate, involved book, that analyses the 'Beauty Myth' from a perspective that is first a woman's, and second a sociologist. While parts of this book are a bit extreme and political, on the whole it provides a new framework for thought, and many fascinating angles to consider in any discussion of beauty, culture or women's media. It is ironic that some of the criticism this book has received in these reviews ('Let her be ugly, or even average before she writes a book' , 'the way she throws her beautiful hair around') only goes to prove much of what Ms Wolf says - that her views as an author and a human being must be so inseperable from her looks, and that there is some quality of 'ugliness' that is absolute and which women should constantly strive to get out of. Feeling attractive is certainly every woman's right, but it is a feeling, not an absolute state. Anyone who has travelled out of America, and experienced diverse cultures, will testify to this.
Rating:
Summary: Misleading and badly written
Review: Naomi Wolf sets herself a very ambitious project: a cultural analysis of beauty. Unfortunately she falls at the first fence, since her book contains glaring factual errors and omissions. The kind of laziness that has caused her to rely on dubious research also pervades her lengthy analyses, which amount to little more than unsubstantiated diatribe. Overall I'd say that this book deals with a complicated subject, and unfortunately its author was not prepared to put in the scholarly effort that the topic required. You'd be far better off with a more conventional sociological approach to the problem of self-image by Barthes or perhaps Adorno.
Rating:
Summary: A good antidote to Etcoff
Review: Etcoff in "Survival of the Prettiest" gives the nature point of view in this nature versus nurture controversy. Are standards of feminine beauty determined by the culture? Wolf says they are, whereas Etcoff and the evolutionary psychologists say we inherit them. It is a confused polemic with garbled medical facts. She liberally uses percentages and statistics but has no understanding of epidemiology. Mortality rates from obesity are certainly much higher than from anorexia.Her heart is in the right place and her crusade against "lookism" or "appearancism" is a worthy one.
Rating:
Summary: A Book on Beauty by the Most Beautiful WOman in the World
Review: As an author who also has television experience, Naomi Wolf knows the difference that beauty can make in addition to competence. Here reflections are informed and powerful. As a woman who typifies the ideal of beauty in American culture, Wolf has an interesting perspective.
Rating:
Summary: Well-explained and relevant book
Review: The Beauty Myth should be required reading for young women, as far as I am concerned. Men who are puzzled or concerned about women's obesssion with their looks may gain insight as well. Wolf takes a very balanced approach in explaining the 'beauty culture' which helps keep women down, without resorting to conspiracy theories. I would call this the equivalent of The Feminine Mystique for the younger (some would say 'third wave') generation.
Rating:
Summary: Naomi Wolfs Beauty Myth is a blow for individualism!
Review: Gloria Steinem is right when she states the following: "The beauty myth is a smart, angry, insightfull book." However, I read this book as statement not to follow set rules. In the air of Thoreau she claims that it is better for an individual to follow their own set of morals and idea of beauty: rather then then the standard set by society
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