A Beautiful Heroine.

In The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf writes, "a beautiful heroine is a contradiction in terms, since heroism is about individuality, interesting and ever changing, while beauty is generic, boring, and inert"(Wolf, 59). In some ways I see what she is trying to say, but I disagree with her and I think by making this statement she is kind of contradicting herself.
I see her point in that women who obsess about beauty are all about the material outside and are really quite shallow in the inside. Many women who focus on their beauty can be "generic, boring, and inert"(Wolf, 59). But I think it is incorrect for her to say that "beauty is generic, boring, and inert"(Wolf, 59). A woman can be beautiful and still have substance to her. A beautiful woman can have thoughts and opinions and a great personality. I don't think it is correct to say that beauty isn't about "individuality, interesting, and ever changing"(Wolf, 59). All women are different and they all have individual beauty that defines them. Beauty can be interesting and beauty changes as you grow and age. Who knows the definition of beauty? Aren't there many different types of beauty? Can you tell me then how beauty is not individual and interesting? I consider my grandmother a beautiful woman, and her beauty has changed much and will change much. Tell me then, is that not an example of beauty being ever changing?
I also disagree with Wolf in her argument that "a beautiful heroine is a contradiction in terms". I don't see why a heroine can't be beautiful. To me, my mother is my hero and I think she is the most beautiful woman in the world!
Wolf said herself that women can never win because people are constantly typecasting them. When they are beautiful, they are judged based on the fact that they only got that job because they are pretty. When they are not pretty, they are dismissed. Isn't Wolf also typecasting when she makes her statement about a beautiful heroine? Why can't beautiful women be a heroine and why can't a heroine be beautiful?

Wolf's argument continues; she says, "culture stereotypes women to fit the myth by flattening the feminine into beauty-without-intelligence or intelligence-without-beauty; women are allowed a mind or a body but not both"(Wolf, 59). I hesitantly agree with this passage a bit more than the other just because it says "culture stereotypes", which I agree with, but I am still not sure it is that black and white. I have many heroes who are incredibly intelligent women and who I believe to be beautiful! Among them are; my mum, my grandmother, all of my aunts, my sisters, Abigail Adams, Queen Elizabeth I and II, Eleanor Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, Hilary Clinton, Rosa Parks....and the list goes on.
With all of the disagreements I have with Wolf, this is one passage she wrote that I do agree with; "the woman wins who calls herself beautiful and challenges the world to change to truly see her"(Wolf, 290). Now that ladies and gentleman is a beautiful heroine.