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Fresh Lipstick By Linda M.Scott

From:     Lippy
Category: Books
Date:     04 October 2007
Time:     04:03 PM

Review:



The title suggests something exciting and punchy, with hopefully some intelligence and a fresh insight 
in to the feminist/fashion debate. I was hoping for something about the freedom that fashion offers us, 
the freedom given by plastic surgery, the chance to glimpse what could be if we weren't driven to 
these measures by society and its sexism, if boob jobs and penis enlargements were more about 
personal freedom to do what we like with our bodies (take illegal drugs and kill ourselves if we want 
to) rather than body fascism. Gyms are definitely an untapped energy resource to power our strung 
out environment. Instead this is a dull look at the history of feminism, lists of powerful women at the 
head of these "sexist" enterprises - owners of face creams, editors of women's magazines. These 
Scott claims are the "feminists" we should value. Uncle Tom. Sexism goes happily in hand with 
powerful women. Women may own magazines, and have fulfilled lives where they have financial 
power, but this does not mean they do not reap the rewards of a market driven by sexism. Finally 
these magazines do not encourage emancipation. She points out that women have got good jobs 
and power by dressing well - but this is nothing new, we know this all too well. Of course fashion helps 
women get on in the world but precisely because it is a world shaped by men, where the men hand 
out the power. She argues that feminism as we know it (condemning the beauty and fashion 
industries) was a product of Puritan America and the aristocracy. The Puritans didn't want to see 
women dressed up and the aristocrats didn't want the workers to have clothes like them. Same result, 
different causes, different ideologies, but Scott makes the link. It has a sexy cover with a naked 
midriff, and a bullet belt that contains lipsticks. 


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