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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.