Quote by Naomi Wolf
Vogue began to focus on the body as much as on the clothes, in part because there was little they could dictate with the anarchic styles...In a stunning move, an entire replacement culture was developed by naming a 'problem' where it had scarcely existed before, centering it on the women's natural state, and elevating it to the existential female dilemma...The number of diet-related articles rose 70 percent from 1968 to 1972...The lucrative 'transfer of guilt' was resurrected just in time.
Summary
This quote suggests that Vogue, a renowned fashion magazine, started to emphasize the importance of the body in addition to clothing. This shift in focus was driven by the emergence of unconventional and unruly fashion styles that the magazine had limited control over. In order to maintain their influence, a new cultural narrative was constructed that labeled the female body as a "problem." This narrative served to make women feel that their natural state was inadequate and that the quest for an ideal body became an existential dilemma. As a result, the number of articles related to diets increased significantly, allowing guilt and insecurities to be exploited for profit.
By Naomi Wolf
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