Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism

"This book came out in 2010, which was the beginning of a wave of feminist publishing. Caitlin Moran’s How to Be a Woman came out not long after. It was the start of this incredible explosion of feminist publishing after it had been in the doldrums for ten or fifteen years. When this book came out, a lot of people said, ‘We’re in a post-feminist world. Why do we need this book?’ Similar to Backlash , it really marked a moment of saying, ‘We really need feminism again.’ Natasha’s book is, again, about the personal and the political. Before she wrote this book she had believed, ‘We’ve advanced far enough in feminism that what people do in their personal lives—who they have sex with, how they have sex, what they wear—is irrelevant. We should be focusing on pay and legislation.’ But, as she says in the subtitle, she saw this return of sexism, this increase, on the one hand, of choice and freedom and liberation, but on the other, of women being funneled down this increasingly narrow chute of what it is to be desirable, what it is to be sexy. She’s making the argument that it’s partly about pornography, so we’re back to Angela Carter. It’s so interesting to read these two books alongside each other. They really speak to each other. Angela Carter is a feminist. There is feminist polemic in her book, but it’s also cultural criticism. Living Dolls is a full-on book about feminism and politics. It really bears rereading, especially thinking about technology. This book was written when online pornography was starting to get really huge, but it was before social media properly began. Smartphones had only been around for a little while. I read this book when it came out and I reread it recently. Although it was only 13 years ago, it’s fascinating to read as a historical document. Part of me thinks, ‘Wow, a huge amount has changed for good in the last 13 years.’ There’s been such an incredible flourishing of feminist activism online and in other places. But part of me feels depressed because some things are worse. The book bears rereading in lots of different ways. It still feels relevant. A lot of the book is about how women are being told or believing that they’re making decisions about their bodies, what they look like, and how they display their sexuality. It’s their choice. It’s freedom. But, actually, lots of forces are making them feel like they need to look like Barbie. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . We’ve kept the cover image from the original publication because it felt hard to beat. The image is playing with the physical ideals that you get from pornography—this aesthetically perfect, white, slim woman who I don’t think has ever had kids and is fully waxed—and the Barbie hair."