At the end of the 18th century, British parliamentarians proposed a law that would prevent women from “trapping” men with artificial means, such as makeup. This bill seems laughable now, and yet according to this new book about beauty culture, we still ascribe way too much power to a pretty face. Ottawa author Shari Graydon is a former president of the non-profit women’s group MediaWatch and the author of Made You Look, which pointed out to kids the ways in which advertisers target them by cultivating insecurity and a general sense of lack. In Your Face is an exposé along similar lines: written for North American adolescents, it addresses the tyranny of beauty and fashion standards and suggests ways in which these standards can be resisted.

Graydon promotes awareness as the first step in resistance, suggesting that if we develop the critical tools to examine mass media images then we’ll be less susceptible to their traps. But she is a realist, and acknowledges that sometimes being able to analyze a situation doesn’t make it feel any better. Her material is exceptionally well researched and presented. There are examples from current pop culture, fairy tales, and history. The snappy layout contains photographs, comic strips, sidebars, and bulleted lists to break up the large volume of information presented. The writing is clear and engaging in tone, although there are a few unfortunate exceptions, like the smug blurb reminding us that Prince Charles preferred the plain Camilla to glamorous but insecure Princess Diana. Overall, this is a great classroom resource and, more generally, an entertaining book to browse.