The Beauty Suit

April 1, 2018

Shields made a name for herself with her 2013 Salon article, "My Year of Modesty," in which the author questioned "the Beauty Suit"--the high investment of time and money that women spend to look good and thus, hopefully, be taken seriously. It was here that she first suggested that feminists can be inadvertently patriarchal since women from more religiously defined groups do not adhere to these norms and somehow feel freer. For this, she suffered a stream of vigorous feminist criticism. Here, she clarifies and expands upon the ideas in her article, calling her nine months of "religiously inspired modesty" a challenge to the belief that "nothing is more important than looking good, every single day of our lives." Further, this is not about men at all; it's about women finding new concepts of beauty and empowerment, especially within religiously inspired norms. VERDICT Although Shields can be faulted for some generalizations (for example, most don't view the 1960s women's liberation movement as freedom from restrictive clothing), she allows readers an extended reflection on our notions of self.--Sandra Collins, Byzantine Catholic Seminary Lib., Pittsburgh

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.