ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

Review of Body Outlaws

What do you do for an encore if you launched a national women's magazine at age 19? Detroit native Ophira Edut followed up her editorial career at the alterna-hit HUES magazine by publishing Adios, Barbie [Body Outlaws] right before her 26th birthday. A collection of personal essays by 27 forthright females--such as Rebecca Walker and Susan Jane Gilman--Adios blasts past Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth as it examines the detrimental effects of our collective adoration for Barbie. "In a culture still mesmerized by an unnatural beauty standard, these simple tales of self-acceptance are heroic deeds, braves acts of resistance," Edut writes in the introduction. Big noses, wide butts, too much flab, kinky hair, dark skin. These are the realities Barbie never knew, but they're celebrated here in intimate detail. (Lori Tharps)

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