Popular Culture Review Vol. 4, No. 2, June 1993 | Page 24

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Popular Culture Review

Lear's oppositional character, however, is not anarchic; it
exhibits a not very secret sympathy for the establishment it seeks to
exploit. The magazine is not seeking "revolution" in a communal,
comprehensive effort, as if to form some vaguely Marxist combination
directed at general and fundamental change. The magazine, rather,
models and promotes personal, individual transformations. In a piece
entitled, "Can a Feminist Have a Facelift," the writer catches the
magazine's basic prenriise: "Studies have shown that beauty alone
never gives women self-esteem .
Autonomy, self-reliance,
achievement, and self-expression do" (Seligson 56). The ideology of
the unique individual and of self-determination gover