INTRODUCTION

In the 1970s a feminist critique of makeup and other beauty practices emerged from consciousness-raising groups. The American radical feminist theorist Catharine A. MacKinnon called consciousness-raising the ``methodology'' of feminism (MacKinnon, 1989). In these groups women discussed how they felt about themselves and their bodies. They identi®ed the pressures within male dominance that caused them to feel they should diet, depilate and makeup. Feminist writers rejected a masculine aesthetics that caused women to feel their bodies were inadequate and to engage in expensive, time-consuming practices that left them feeling that they were inauthentic and unacceptable when barefaced (Dworkin, 1974). ``Beauty'' was identi®ed as oppressive to women.