Fresh Lipstick

Redressing Fashion and Feminism

By Scott, Linda M.

Publishers Summary:
Fresh Lipstick shakes feminist fashion down to its Birkenstocks. Linda M. Scott wants to put an end to the belief that American women have to wear a colorless, shapeless uniform to achieve liberation and equality.A pointed attack on feminism's requisite style of dress, Fresh Lipstick argues that wearing high heels and using hair curlers does not deny you the right to seek advancement, empowerment, and equality. Scott asserts that judging someone on her fashion choices is as detrimental to advancement as judgments based on race, nationality, or social class. Fashion is an important mode of personal expression, not an indication of submission. She demonstrates that feminism's dogged reduction of fashion to sexual objectification has been motivated by a desire to control other women, not free them. This push for power has produced endless conflict from the movement's earliest days, hindering advances in women's rights by promoting exclusion. It is time for the "plain Jane" dress code of the revolution to be lifted, allowing all women to lead, even those wearing makeup and Manolos.Marching through 150 years of American dress history, Scott rips down feminism's favorite positions on fashion-from the power of images to the purpose of makeup. The illustrative examples-from flappers to Twiggy to body-piercing-are often poignant, occasionally infuriating, but always illuminating and thought-provoking.With Fresh Lipstick, Linda Scott gives women the ammunition to settle the fashion debate once and for all. She challenges feminists to move beyond appearances and to return their focus to the true mission of the movement: equality for all women everywhere.

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ISBN
978-1-40396-686-5
Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan


REVIEWS

Library Journal

Reviewed on February 1, 2005

Scott (advertising & women's studies, Univ. of Illinois) contends that leaders in the women's movement--from Susan B. Anthony to Gloria Steinem--have misled women by suggesting what they ought (and ought not) be wearing. Scott disputes the claim that a patriarchal fashion industry has been oppressing women and offers a detailed and revealing analysis of wome...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

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