Cosmetics, Fashions, and the Exploitation of Women [Paperback]

Joseph Hansen; Evelyn Reed; Mary-Alice Waters (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1993

How big business plays on women's second-class status and social insecurities to market cosmetics and rake in profits. The introduction by Waters explains how the entry of millions of women into the workforce during and after World War II irreversibly changed U.S. society and laid the basis for a renewed rise of struggles for women's emancipation. Also available in: Farsi

Product Details

• Paperback: 172 pages
• Publisher: Pathfinder Press (NY) (March 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873486595
• ISBN-13: 978-0873486590
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,563,028 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Small book stuffed with essential information, April 15, 2002

By 

hatlanta "hollyatlanta" (Marietta, Georgia United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cosmetics, Fashions, and the Exploitation of Women (Paperback)

My two favorite sections of this book are the introduction by Mary-Alice Waters and the essay by Evelyn Reed, "The Woman Question and the Marxist Method." In the intro, Waters explains 1) how the status of women in the US has changed since WWII; 2) what the women's liberation movement of the 1960s and 70s accomplished; and 3) a scientific explanation for why this powerful and inspiring movement declined. It is the definitive answer to Susan Faludi's thesis in Backlash, written 8 years before Faludi's book appeared! For that alone, this book is worth buying and reading and studying and discussing with others.
Reed's essay sums up the political debate at the center of the book (see other reviewers' summaries of this) and, like Waters, launches a factual, scientific examination of the roots of the oppression of women and how our concepts of beauty, fashion, and cosmetics are tied to the rule of a handful of capitalists over the majority who toil for a living. A must for women (and men) who want to understand why sexism exists in our society and how to fight it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A clariftying book, June 27, 2006

By 

Tony Thomas (SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cosmetics, Fashions, and the Exploitation of Women (Paperback)

While American corporate propoganda, the pressure of advertising, and an antiwoman culture means that more money is spent in this country on cosmetics than on education, this is not natural, but the product of a society hostile to women, hostile to humans, and beholden to capital. The core of this book is the discussion about this issue that took place in the Socialist Workers Party in the 1950s, but the rich and full introduction linking these discussions to the rise of feminism, the victory of abortion rights, and other struggle since is very important to understanding of women's struggles today.

This books clarifies a lot of things that we let just seep into our minds from this society without understanding where they come from, why they exist and who is to blame.

While this book may not be available from Amazon from time time, it is always available from booksfrompathfinder, a vendor you can rech by clicking on new and used toward the top of this page.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Human relations vs. prejudices and fetishes of capitalism, March 26, 2002

By 

Harvey (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cosmetics, Fashions, and the Exploitation of Women (Paperback)

A fascinating and instructive collection, this is the written record of a debate carried out in the pages of the socialist newsweekly, the Militant, in the mid-1950s.

You get a serious look at the roots of the oppression of women in capitalist society, including the powerful psychological pressure exerted through mass media, marketing, and bosses to compel women to "need"--and hence buy-- the "right" clothes, cosmetics, and so-called beauty treatments. The discussion takes up the changing relations between men and women as human society has evolved from earliest times to today's class-divided society, debunks the notion of an eternal standard of beauty, and much more.

It's also a wonderful example of how to analyze and understand political and social questions from the standpoint of the interests of working people and not succumb to the prejudices and fetishes of capitalist society. You see how political activists can thrash out sharp differences over tough questions in the framework of an open exchange of views.

An extensive introduction covers the impact of the capitalist crisis of the 1980s on women and the decline of the mass women's rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s.