On the one hand, we imagine that women are empowered by the ability to change the way they look—except that this “empowerment” takes the form of complete and utter submission, the woman lying unconscious on a table while a person she barely knows with a blade slices into her pliant flesh. And what are we to make of the competing notions that beauty is the most superficial and shallow of pursuits, while at the same time being the greatest asset a woman can have?
