"It seems to me that if were we all equally obsessed with our bodies, this would not be a good world to live in at all. It would not be a world of human flourishing."

Heather Widdows is a leading philosopher of applied and global ethics, whose work has forced both academia and popular culture to confront the ethical dimensions of beauty, identity, and the body. Currently Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick, she previously served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Birmingham, where she held the prestigious John Ferguson Chair of Global Ethics.

Her most recent book Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical Ideal argues that the pressure to attain physical perfection has moved beyond vanity — it has become a dominant moral framework shaping how women understand their own worth and failure. Her other major works include Global Ethics and The Connected Self: The Ethics and Governance of the Genetic Individual.

"Innovative and original." — Anne Phillips