Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion

Tolentino writes about the ideal woman in "Always Be Optimizing" and the difficult woman in "The Cult of the Difficult Woman." These figures are related. They are both represented by certain female celebrities, for example, and both are presented as possible models for women's behavior. Tolentino finds both problematic in different ways. In attempting to achieve the "ideal" status, women focus their attention on their bodies, rather than on their social positions. In celebrating the "difficult" woman, feminists not only ignore the difference between the lives of celebrities and the average woman, but also reduce womanhood to the experience of sexism. In both cases, Tolentino presents these models as negative.