The Beauty Suit

Description

Rooted in feminist theory and religious history, and guided by a snappy personal narrative, The Beauty Suit unpacks modern American womanhood: a landscape where the female body is still so often the battleground for male ideals, and where we struggle with our rights as human beings to define and exercise our freedom. Exploring what religious traditions and secular culture say about how a woman should dress, look, and, by extension, be, Shields investigates the modesty practices of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity with humor and an eye to separating the facts from the propaganda, and drags runaway consumerism under her microscope in the process.