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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 1991)
irawgiaacraaifiMMra—MaHiiBroiKKi ■hAAmH - -. Gnoucp Michelle Paulman/DN Glamour industry sells all kinds of beauty From plastic surgery to Naomi Campbell, images of perfection abound in America By Jennifer Johnson Senior Editor Americans spend $33 billion a year on cosmetics and $300 million a year on cosmetic surgery — not happy statis tics for those who believe in the value of “inner beauty.” One of Oprah Winfrey’s more peaceful shows Monday featured Princess Stephanie of Mon aco. who was listed as one of the ten most beautiful women in the world by Harper’s Bazaar. When Oprah asked the princess if she agreed with this rank she said, “Well, yeah.” She also said the most beautiful women are those with inner beauty. How many limes has a Miss America con testant told Bob Barker that very same thing? What is inner beauty if only glamorous types ever talk about it in the media? Inner beauty must be the substance that makes a person “real,” warm, approachable and good, but people with more inner beauty than outer beauty are hardly ever portrayed as exciting. Even Madonna got injections to plump up her lips. Apparently, the material girl still doesn’t think she has reached her outer-beauty poten tial. Women (and men!) see stellar figures such as Madonna and Sly Stallone in pursuit of the unrealistic bod and the perfectly sculpted nose. Thai’s what they see as the path to inner beauty. In the book “The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women,” Naomi Wolf wrote, “Somehow, somewhere, someone must have figured out that they (women) will buy more things if they arc kept in the self hating, ever-failing, hungry and sexually insc ♦ cure slate of being aspiring ‘beauties.’” Wolf said the “beauty myth” began only after the industrialization of America. Before that time, the family unit was the most impor tantaspcctofawoman’slife. Wolf said women had little exposure to other women outside ol the family or church, and it was just accepted that “ordinary women” could not be “beauti ful.” Then, women left the home to work and carried with them a new biblc — the fashion magazine. Within these magazines are ads for products that Wolf said promise women a “religious feeling” hence, the link to inner See BEAUTY on 2