The Power of Beauty

Blending her own life experiences with years of research, Nancy Friday (whose previous books include My Mother/My Self and My Secret Garden) exposes the power of beauty--how it shapes our priorities as well as our self identities. Each stage of human development is influenced by culture's idolization of beauty, says Friday, who leads the reader through a chronological study, starting with babyhood and ending with old age. Friday has never shied away from true confessions or taboo topics--and there are certainly plenty here: she addresses beauty as competition in the workplace, the new male vanity, secret feelings about our genitals, and the emotional damage she has inflicted upon herself and her lovers in her quest for adoration. More than a psychological examination, The Power of Beauty is a challenge for men and women to take responsibility for their part in the oppression and angst that is caused by the obsession with beauty.