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Having read Heather Widdows¡¯ book?Perfect Me: Beauty as an ?Ethical Idea, I was disappointed that the news article discussing it (¡°Beauty is now an ethical ideal¡±, 24 May) focused on the author¡¯s appearance in its standfirst (¡°Matthew Reisz talks to a philosopher using ¡®paint, powder, leather and heels¡¯ to ¡®unsettle status quo¡¯¡¯) and in its first four paragraphs, rather than on the book¡¯s substance.

Widdows does, I grant, say those things ¨C but all within the first two pages of the acknowledgements. Women continue to suffer from the fact that many men find their appearance to be their most interesting feature; indeed, how much they suffer from that is one of the things that Widdows¡¯ book establishes. It is a pity that this article continues that trend.

Helen Beebee
Professor of philosophy
University of Manchester

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