The Beauty Standards Backlash  What Women Really Think Dec. 22
2009 11:03 AM  The Beauty Standards Backlash  Are escalating
beauty standards a response to women's growing political and
economic power? Michelle Goldberg asks this in The American
Prospect , and her answer, unsurprisingly, is, "Quite probably."
It's hard not to be stunned at the exponentially growing number
of procedures that women are expected to submit to, and
exponentially growing number of flaws we're expected to worry
about and attend to. I'm in my early 30s, and in just the years
since I graduated college, the list of beauty treatments that
went from unheard of to seemingly mandatory is shocking. And
"mandatory" is no exaggeration. Female friends even a few years
younger than I seem to think the Brazilian wax is as much a
given as I grew up thinking pit-shaving was. There's a whole
generation of men and women who think seeing a pubic hair on a
vulva is as weird as seeing a face tattoo.  But is there a
steady trend over time? I adore the sh