Lipstick today is as messy—and fascinating—as changing attitudes towards femininity. Mining the experience of women across culture, class, and generation, this book tosses out expired ideas about beauty and power like so many tubes of melted wax.

From Max Factor to Glossier, from Marilyn to Chappell Roan, lipstick is as shape-shifting and elusive as femininity itself. Rather than a staid history of the object, Lipstick is a roving exploration of gender, sexuality, and performance—combining personal narrative with research and cultural critique. Unpacking the history of feminism's anti-lipstick sentiments, debunking long-standing fallacies, and digging into how Gen Z is using lipstick to explode gender norms, this book explores how self-adornment can be a source of play, pleasure, and transformation.