Is “Fat” A Dirty Word?:
81
underarms shaved, eyebrows plucked, feet pumiced, skin
exfoliated and moisturized, spots cleansed, roots dyed,
eyelashes tinted, nails filed, cellulite massaged, stomach
muscles exercised. The whole performance is so highly tuned
you only need to neglect it for a few days for the whole thing
to go to seed ... Is it any wonder girls have no confidence?
(Fielding 27)
In order to be appealing and cut out the competition for the prospective
Mr. Right, Bridget exercises and dry scrubs her naked body to reduce cellulite,
although she knows that men should like women just as they are. She confesses,
“I am a child of Cosmopolitan culture, have been traumatized by supermodels
and too many quizzes and know that neither my personality nor my body is up
to it if left to its own devices. I can’t take the pressure” (Fielding 52). This
“pressure” that modern postfeminist women feel is seen as a reaction against the
progress made by second wave feminism, a retrosexist