This image is the cover for the book Power of Beauty

Power of Beauty

Reflections on how physical appearance, and beliefs about it, affect women’s lives from a #1 bestselling author who’s “enormously fun to read” (The New York Times).

Beauty and appearance play a pervasive role in our culture. Here, the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of the groundbreaking, controversial bestseller My Secret Garden delves into beauty's influence on popular media and the psyche of modern women.

Combining in-depth cultural analysis with personal anecdotes, sexology, and individual case studies, Nancy Friday explores the dissatisfaction women feel about their bodies—and how it affects their sexual freedom. Her analysis is broad-reaching, examining how popular culture, advertising, stereotypes of women in the workplace, the sexual liberation of the 1960s, and the dynamics of family relationships put pressure on women to live up to an impossible feminine ideal.

Also published under the title Our Looks, Our Lives

Nancy Friday

Nancy Friday is a New York Times–bestselling author and journalist who established her early career writing for high-profile publications in England, France, and the US. Her first book, My Secret Garden, was an iconic bestseller, offering an honest and illuminating look at the landscape of female sexuality. It was published in 1973, and since then, Nancy Friday has continued to write on themes including female sexuality, mother-daughter relationships, beauty, fetishism, and romantic relationships. She has been featured as a guest on Oprah, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, Politically Incorrect, and NPR's Talk of the Nation.

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