Ads of the 1920s were quite explicit about this narcissistic imperative. They unabashedly used pictures of veiled nudes and women in auto-erotic stances to encourage self-comparison and to remind women of the primacy of their sexuality. A booklet advertising feminine beauty aids had on its cover a picture of a highly scrubbed, powdered and decorated nude. The message of the title was explicit: “Your Masterpiece—Yourself.” Women were being educated to look at themselves as things to be created competitively against other women: painted and sculpted with the aids of the modern market.128
