Where have all the interesting women gone? If the contemporary portrayal of woma
nkind were to be believed, contemporary female achievement would culminate in th
e ownership of expensive handbags, a vibrator, a job, a flat and a man. Of cours
e, no one has to believe the TV shows, the magazines and adverts, and many don't
. But how has it come to this? Did the desires of twentieth-century women's libe
ration achieve their fulfilment in the shopper's paradise of 'naughty' self-pamp
ering, playboy bunny pendants and bikini waxes? That the height of supposed fema
le emancipation coincides so perfectly with consumerism is a miserable index of
a politically desolate time.
