Beauty often ends in stereotypes dictated by narrow body ideals and strong market forces. The reason is the cocktail called power and beauty – a poisonous kind, but nevertheless the one we all drink from. This essay is a patchwork of reflections and conversations with pioneers, professors, feminists, supermodels and a young girl dreaming of being Miss World.

FOTO: Katerina Jebb, Oral Portrait, 2007

“The narcissist depends on others to validate his self-esteem. He cannot live without an admiring audience; for the narcissist, the world is a mirror”

- Cristopher Lasch