Heather Widdows is the John Ferguson Professor of Global Ethics in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham. Her books include Global Ethics: An Introduction, The Connected Self: The Ethics and Governance of the Genetic Individual, and The Moral Vision of Iris Murdoch.
"One of The Atlantic's Best Books of 2018"
"In . . . Perfect Me, Heather Widdows, a philosophy professor at
the University of Birmingham, England, convincingly argues that the
pressures on women to appear thinner, younger and firmer are
stronger than ever."---Amanda Hess, New York Times
"In 1990 . . . Naomi Wolf published The Beauty Myth, her
examination—and her indictment—of the way attractiveness functions
as both a metaphor for and a mandate over women’s lives. The book
now has a sequel, of sorts. . . . Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical
Ideal . . . [is] a scholarly work that is urgently relevant to the
current cultural moment."---Meagan Garber, The Atlantic
"Perfect Me, a buzzed-about new book by Heather Widdows, argues
women face unprecedented pressure to appear thinner, younger and
firmer."---Anne Kingston, Maclean's
"Heather Widdows, in Perfect Me, considers the far-ranging
implications of attractiveness rendered in the imperative, giving
beauty itself, in the process, the rigorously intellectual
treatment it deserves. The book, an academic title with mass-market
implications, considers beauty as a construction, racialized and
gendered; beauty as a constriction, often punishing and
occasionally cruel; and beauty as a goal that remains, for most,
persistently out of reach. Perfect Me is a treatise that often
reads, fittingly, as an indictment—a book that recognizes all the
ways people are taught, still, to judge books by their covers."
*The Atlantic*
"A sharp and accessible read."---Regan Penaluna, Guenrica
"Widdows is at her best in her analysis of liberalism’s uncritical
glorification of choice (and therefore responsibility), which fails
to consider social contexts and pressures and so allows for victim
blaming when women ‘choose’ to comply with beauty
standards."---M.A. Betz, Choice Reviews
"Widdows deserves high praise for her interdisciplinary work in
this book and its combination with philosophical rigor."---Samantha
Brennan, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
"Perfect Me is well-worth reading for anyone who is concerned about
the importance of beauty in modern life and the imperative to
develop critical perspectives for thinking about it. It sets out
the questions that we need to be thinking about and does so in a
way that makes it clear what is at stake in our search for
evermore-perfect bodies."---Kathy Davis, European Journal of
Women's Studies
"Heather Widdows[‘s Perfect Me] gave me language to understand my
own thought processes around my body, and that framework freed me
from years of accidentally accumulated bullshit thinking. I’m
grateful I stumbled onto it. I think of it frequently."---Bri Lee,
Sydney Morning Herald
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