ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ideas of the radical feminist critique of beauty and show how these came to be challenged both by the new liberal feminism and its counterpart in the academy, a variety of post modern feminism that stresses choice and agency in a similar way. The chapter considers the tensions that have developed between the advocates of 'choice' and those who emphasize the role of culture and force in exacting women's conformity to the beauty practices of femininity. It concludes with the ideas of some of those feminist theorists and researchers who have provided persuasive explanations of the constraints that restrict the possibilities of women's agency around beauty practices in male-dominant cultures founded upon sexual difference/deference. The chapter argues that Western beauty practices need to be included in UN definitions of harmful cultural practices.
