Ideal Beauty: Image Isn’t Everything

It is 1992 and the backlash against women has apparent tsunami effects on The Times’ grasp of cultural pathology. The View section’s breathless account of how Western myths of “glamour” are sweeping Russia read like a beauty industry press release.

This report welcomed the ravaged body images of some Muscovite women and praised their acceptance of newly introduced male-pleasing marketing of the female body. The article promoted the American Barbie-style myth of glamour as reality, well worth the obsession of mind and body, when it is in fact a crucial means of disempowering women’s authenticity and sexuality.

MARY ARMSTRONG

Sierra Madre