Wednesday 3 March 2010

The Equality Illusion

Kat Banyard's The Equality Illusion: The Truth about Women and Men Today covers some of the same ground as Natasha Walter's Living Dolls. I've read about 60 pages of it so far and it is really interesting - and thought provoking. She wrote it as a result of interviewing over 100 people about equality issues.

The book is arranged as though the reader is living through 24 hours and showing how women spend time doing things which men never need to do. She talks about eating disorders and how they affect women's lives - over 90% of eating disorder sufferers are women. We see how even young girls are expected to go to school wearing make up. Which made me think about what happened to school rules which banned makeup? I can remember the deputy headmistress standing over girls while they scrubbed their faces if they dared to go to school with makeup on. It usually earned people at least a detention.

I will review the book at greater length when I've finished it.

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