The Singapore’s Writers Festival is currently in full swing, and I attended Naomi Wolf’s lecture, The Beauty Myth, which was largely based on the key ideas she advanced in her seminal 1990 book of the same name. Wolf is an engaging and energetic speaker, even as she covered old ground about how modern First World women, presumably emancipated through education and greater freedoms, are nonetheless perpetually plied with unrealistic beauty standards in media that she contends are designed to hold back their advance. She asserted that never in the history of the media have women ever been portrayed as having achieved enough. The more stunning–and perhaps unfortunate–revelation was that her insights are still as relevant as they were more than two decades ago.

It is undeniable that fashion journalism is largely culpable in peddling unrealistic images of beauty. In fact, many in the fashion media and industry are unapologetic about it, claiming that the relentless airbrushing of images and the fetishising of the female body (chiefly, the white, blue-eyed and blonde one) fulfils the industry’s mission to generate fantasy and aspiration.  That the industry is riddled with contradictions is no surprise. Just yesterday, Charlie Brooker of The Guardian pointed out another painful paradox that the “This Is What A Feminist Looks Like” T-shirt currently trending in the UK embodies, seeing that it is made cheaply by severely underpaid women in Mauritius.[1]

However, Wolf proffers no real solution to this problem in her lecture, only lamenting that Western feminism, which in her opinion has veered far away from its Enlightenment ideals set out by Mary Wollstonecraft due to puritanical attitudes, narcissism and the unfortunate demonising of men rather than oppression as the enemy, has a lot to learn from emerging countries where feminism is mostly rooted in the fight for basic freedoms. In any case, I respected her honesty for conceding that the West has much to learn from the developing world, and that she feels that the label of “feminist” is not as important as carrying out feminist actions, whether one is male or female. Refreshingly, she also opined that the rise of social media is ultimately something to be lauded for the unparalleled platform it offers female voices otherwise marginalised, even though it also gives rise to women’s self-objectification and excessive vanity in the form of selfies. She also helped to clarify why women hold themselves to impossible ideals, even though they are on some level aware of the awfulness of the endeavour – it isn’t merely about landing the best man or acquiring the most resources, it’s about wanting to be treated well, which made me a little sad.

After the lecture, I had the opportunity to chat briefly with Wolf as she signed my books, and asked her what women could do to be kinder to each other in light of how we are relentlessly pitted against each other, whether in the form of body image or our worldly accomplishments. Certainly, the patriarchy and the media it largely controls is responsible for a lot of inherent hostility we have towards each other, but women more often than not perpetuate this aggression instead of nullifying it because of a mindset rooted in scarcity. Wolf replied that not gossiping about each other is a start, and that when all else fails, look for positive women to hang out with.

Ultimately, the lecture did not break new ground as much as it offered a forum to air ideas about women’s issues. Indeed, the front row was filled with pioneers from Singapore’s women’s movement, a key figure being Constance Singam, the ex-President of AWARE (Association of Women for Action and Research). In a way, this is a timely reminder that as much as we enjoy fantasy and beauty, we also have a responsibility as women not to be hard on each other when it comes to our appearance. In the case of fashion journalism, it is perhaps more becoming then to be more careful about how our words are dispensed when we are celebrating style. Indeed, instead of serving of narrow definitions of beauty, there should be a greater focus on how fashion manifests diversity and character. Of course, this does not mean that we have to be saccharine in our support for each other. Rather, it calls for having each others’ backs and not perpetuating nor condoning abuse. The enemy is elsewhere: It isn’t the women around you, and neither is it the woman in the mirror.

Image Credit:
Photograph of Naomi Wolf at the Singapore Writers Festival 2014 from AsiaOne

[1] See “Even Wearing A Slogan T-shirt Is A Nightmare for Ed Miliband. The Fashion industry Ruins Everything”, by Charlie Brooker for The Guardian.