noted, expressions of pain and insecurity are key features of commercial body confidence messages—to be glimpsed only briefly before a defiant riposte is blazoned: “My beauty. My say” (Dove); “From self-doubt to self-worth” (L’Oréal); “My can’t stop me now hair” (Pantene). The list goes on. The tone is strikingly similar across brands and campaigns

Feminism has become equated with gaining equal opportunity in the labor market, from the factory to the corporate room, gaining equal status with men, and transforming our lives and personalities to fit our new productive tasks.

The idea that it matters less what you choose than that you have the right to choose is the crux of “choice feminism,” whose rise coincided with the rapid, near-overwhelming expansion of consumer choice that began in the 1980s.