Beauty Sick: How the Cultural Obsession with Appearance Hurts Girls and Women

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I want to apologize to all the women I have called beautiful before I've called them intelligent or brave An award-winning Northwestern University psychology professor reveals how the culturalobsession with women's appearanceis an epidemic that harms women's ability to get ahead and to live happy, meaningful lives, in this powerful, eye-opening work in the vein of Naomi Wolf, Peggy Orenstein, and Sheryl Sandberg.

The thing is--Engeln had some good ideas, and I think her thesis as a whole is something that is worth looking in to.Once when I was in graduate school, I got a terrible case of the flu and dropped a good deal of weight in a short amount of time. When I returned to campus, a professor said, “You look good! Did you lose weight?” When I responded that I had lost weight because I’d been seriously ill, she just shrugged and said, “Well, however it happened, looks good!” I remember that moment as such a clear example that much of what we claim to be health-based concern about other women’s weight is not at all. It’s nothing more than an ill-disguised bit of buy-in to a culture that says our worth is determined by our body size and that less is always more, no matter how we get there.” This was a really interesting read that has me thinking a lot about how I talk to other women. It is second nature to compliment something about how another girl or woman looks, but I'm trying to jump to more important things in my conversations. Here are my notes on the book, mostly for myself so I can remember it for later. Furthermore, I think she frequently mistakes a socioeconomically based anxiety--fear of appearing inappropriate for a social group--with her more body obsessed target group. This is clearly a different thing and far more gender neutral. There's a lot of righteous indignation in here, and it gets pretty pretentious. Especially that bit at the end, where she's like "I mean I guess... some women... want to look pretty and they enjoy it... but THINK about it really THINK about it" really rubbed me the wrong way. Though it could just be because I am someone who likes to put effort into my appearance because I like it. Hemos creado una cultura que les dice a las mujeres que lo más importante que pueden conseguir es ser guapas. Y a continuación las machacamos con un estándar de belleza al que nunca llegarán.”

Award-winning Northwestern University psychology professor Dr. Renee Engeln reveals how the cultural obsession with women's appearance is an epidemic that harms their ability to get ahead and to live happy, meaningful lives, in this powerful, eye-opening work in the vein of Naomi Wolf, Peggy Orenstein, and Sheryl Sandberg. Take a careful look around you the next time you’re walking in a crowded area. If you pay close attention, you’ll see women of myriad body shapes and sizes, hair colors, facial features, and ages. It’s easy to forget the actual landscape of women’s appearances, because the range of what we see in media is so narrow.” I particularly admired Engeln’s criticism of the highly lauded Dove beauty campaign. She broke down exactly why the campaign is not empowering. I already agreed with Engeln, and her examination only reinforced that agreement. Dove has good intentions, but, as Engeln explained, the company is misguided and its campaign problematic. Also enlightening is her very needed argument against fat shaming as motivation to lose weight and the parts on the influence of parenting and self-objectification (especially pertinent). Dr. Renee Engeln is a professor at Northwestern University, where she teaches about psychopathology, the psychology of women and gender, social psychology, and the psychology of human beauty. She is an award-winning professor, having amassed over a dozen teaching awards at both Loyola University and Northwestern.An award-winning psychology professor reveals how the cultural obsession with women's appearance is an epidemic that harms women's ability to get ahead and to live happy, meaningful lives, in this powerful, eye-opening work in the vein of Peggy Orenstein and Sheryl Sandberg. Non ci vogliamo veramente far mancare nulla, come sempre siamo troppo avanti in materia di femminismo. Would i hate this about myself if i was born completely alone. Stranded on a island. Is a question that i asked myself a lot in 2022. It helped me recognize the absurdity in my insecurities, and helped me with my decision making, moving forward with my life.