Customer Reviews

Damage Control: Women on the Therapists, Beauticians, and Trainers Who Navigate Their Bodies

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Editor Emma Forrest bravely tackles a new facet of feminism in Damage Control--women writing unabashedly about the primping and refining they undergo not just for themselves, but for their partners, their professions, and for acceptance in society as a whole. The book is divided into five sections--hair care, beauty, therapeutic/surgical modifications, massage, and waxing. It's a good undertaking with some remarkable reads but, unfortunately, Forrest has far less than one book's worth of quality material, and much of the text is just filler that loosely relates to the overall theme.

Frances Lia Block wrote the standout piece in the collection. In her seven-page essay (one of the longest in the book), she confesses to body image discomfort that let her to a therapist who encouraged plastic surgery. Block is a thin, delicate, pale woman who was markedly disfigured by her surgical and laser treatments. With a few years of hindsight and the maturity that comes with motherhood, Block learned to accept herself, and undergo minor treatments only to repair the most physically uncomfortable of her previous body modifications (sinus repair, for example). As a fan of the fantastical, spunky, beautiful worlds Block creates in her fiction, I was surprised to learn about her own lack of self-confidence. I was comforted knowing that she is just like the rest of us.

Other delightful essays include the tale of a freelance author (Samantha Dunn) who was forced to cut her beauty budget in lean times. Image is everything in Los Angeles, however, so when Dunn's stylist found out, she immediately arranged for the author to perform custodial duties in exchange for salon services. The gratitude and elation Dunn felt from this arrangement is truly heart-warming, reminding all women to look out for one another. (Proceeds from this book, in fact, benefit the Women for Women organization, which can be located on the World Wide Web.)

The book also contains a number of beauty tips and tricks, from the best $25 cheapo blow-out in NYC (see Rose McGowan's essay), to the top Persian Beverly Hills waxer to the stars (Soraya), and to the $12 pedicure by a workaholic Vietnamese manicurist struggling to stay alive with a fancy salon across the street (see essay entitled "Jane and Joy"). Overall, I recommend this title, but be prepared to skim through some of the filler material.

I love this book of essays. Especially the ones by Minnie Driver, Samantha Dunn and Rachel Resnick.