She examines how, over time, women have been given more rights, while on a parallel scale, have also become more conscious about being skinny, losing weight, and hating their bodies. She discusses that this exists to stop the female agency. The more powerful women become in this male dominating world, the more they starve themselves.

(Super thin model Karlie Kloss poses for i-D magazine // Photo via Fashion Gone Rogue)

Models who starve themselves are on the cover of magazines; women use these images as fitness inspirations even though they are unrealistic and unhealthy. Wolf’s analysis: eating disorders became a problem for women at the time when women began to gain formal equalities in society. Wolf's thoughts are that the reason female fat is a public passion, and the reason why women feel guilty about being fat is that women recognize that their bodies are not their own but are society’s. This is a very controversial statement, but is she right? Are we gaining power and strength while giving up our physical privacy?

"The ideology of semi-starvation undoes feminism; what happens to women’s bodies happens to our minds. If women’s bodies are and have always been wrong whereas men’s are right, then women are wrong and men are right. Where feminism taught women to put a higher value on ourselves, hunger teaches us how to erode our self-esteem. If a woman can be made to say, 'I hate my fat thighs,' it is a way she has been made to hate femaleness. The more financially independent, in control of events, educated and sexually autonomous women become in the world, the more impoverished, out of control, foolish, and sexually insecure we are asked to feel in our bodies." Naomi Wolf).

I agree, on a certain level, with Wolf’s analysis. Her statistics makes sense, and I agree that it is a cruel, dominating world we live in. However, she never mentions who is making these societal pressures. Was there a memo to all men to make women feel the need to be skinny? Did magazine cover models begin to get thinner and thinner? What happened to cause this change other than formal equalities in society?

"Female obedience" is a complicated subject that Wolf touches on because a woman has the power to stop the action in society. When men are fighting, an attractive woman can walk by and the men will stare at her. Therefore, men are threatened by a woman’s newfound strength and power. Attempting to make the modern woman obedient is a way of coping with that fear of figurative modern circumcision. A women’s only currency used to be her body, and that is still greatly utilized today, even though women now have money of their own. In this world, it is all about how you look on the outside to attract a suitor, who then gets to know your inside beauty. However, you must first real them in with physical attributes. It is sad, but true and I see it happening all around me. Celebrities are famous just for their bodies (i.e. the Kardashians and Jenners).

(Kendall Jenner for Calvin Klein Jeans // Photo via Harper's Bazaar)

“Whom a society values, it feeds well,” Wolf writes in her article, "Hunger." Wolf’s arguments about food as a symbol of worth are no longer applicable in modern times. The people who are fed the most are looked down upon for being obese and tainting their body as their temple. Popular social figures are applauded when they diet and have an in shape body. Models are on the covers of magazines, and they are anorexic and/or bulimic in order to fit into a size 0 for the runway show. Teenagers all over the world look up to them as fitness inspirations. However, I do agree that women take in smaller portions than men. Men want to bulk up, so they take in lots of protein and turn it into muscle. Women eat healthy meals in small portions so that when they workout, they can gain lean muscle and lose fat.

Any female or male celebrity who is physically attractive (most of them are) is looked at as a sexual object. People work hard on their bodies in order to be like these celebrities. Nicki Minaj came into the hiphop industry after getting large breast implants and even larger butt implants. She was known as her body first, and then people started noticing that they enjoyed the music she made. However, she would not be nearly as popular without having gotten those body parts added to her to be seen as a sexual object, first. Now, women want to look like her, so they incorporate waist training and squats into their workout routines to have a smaller waist and a larger butt. The people who eat the least, and are sexual objects, are the ones who society looks to for fashion advice, life pointers, and fitness inspirations. They are praised.

“The more financially independent, in control of events, educated and sexually autonomous women become in the world, the more impoverished, out of control, foolish, and sexually insecure we are asked to feel in our bodies,” according to Wolf. This analysis is spot on. I completely agree because I can see it in my world, today. Women can now be female bosses, which is inspiration in itself; however, they are not usually morbidly obese, haggard women.