Pixel Flesh provides a comprehensive overview of beauty culture, critiquing systemic impositions while appreciating makeup as self-expression. It covers topics like plastic surgery, beauty standards, and the impact of online platforms, offering a hopeful and constructive note on rejecting beauty culture.
Pixel Flesh is a deeply insightful book that delves into the complexities of beauty culture in modern times. It critically examines the systemic pressures that drive women to pursue beauty, while also acknowledging the power of makeup as a form of self-expression. The book covers a wide range of topics, including plastic surgery, the ever-shifting beauty standards, the influence of online platforms, motherhood, the fetishization of youth, and the intersection of beauty with colonization. Ellen Atlanta's intersectional approach and liberatory goals are evident throughout, as she draws from her own experiences and extensive research involving hundreds of women. The book is both sobering and inspiring, ending on a constructive note that offers suggestions for rejecting oppressive beauty standards and fostering solidarity. While the content can be depressing, it accurately diagnoses the faults in the system, providing a sense of clarity and understanding that is often sought in nonfiction.
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This was so so good, everything I was hoping it would be. It gave probably the most comprehensive overview of beauty culture in our current times, being very critical of the systemic impositions that drive us to pursue beauty in the name of various things (self-care, politeness, duty, etc.) while still clearly appreciating the power of makeup as a tool of self-expression, among others.
There have carrots as well as sticks driving every manifestation of female oppression. There’s always been something to sweeten the pill, enabling oppressors to repackage submission as choice. This is not proof of the absence of gender inequality; it’s a demonstration of how it functions. Just because women get something out of a given situation does not mean that situation represents the way relations between men and women should be.
This was such an inspiring book! I'm so glad I read it even though I was already familiar with most of the topics.