SOURCE: Germani, Clara. “The Truth about the Beauty Myth.” Christian Science Monitor (18 June 1991): 14.

In the following essay, Germani discusses The Beauty Myth and reports Wolf's comments on her feminist views.

When a radio talk-show host here felt it necessary to note that Naomi Wolf is a beautiful woman, the author of The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used against Women turned the tables by describing him for the audience as tall, dark, and cute.

While the host's comment didn't immediately seem out of line, it did as soon as Ms. Wolf demonstrated the double standard implied by how out of place it seemed in that same context for a woman to comment on a man's looks.

It's the kind of hyper-awareness that her book and a conversation with Wolf can provoke.

Wolf contends that for all women's gains in workplace rights, equality under legislation, access to...