Sharleen Jonasson eschewed plastic surgery and chose another route to deal with society’s obsession with youth and beauty: She wrote a novel, It's My Body and I'll Cry If I Want To, in which she wrestles with the issue through the experiences of a female journalist who investigates the bizarre world of a state-of-the-art beauty clinic. She’d like to more women writers and other artists use humor and satire to counteract increasingly unrealistic images of women in the media, and invites those interested to begin connecting through her web site.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

When Olivia Goldsmith, best known for her novel The First Wives Club, died from complications apparently caused by plastic surgery, some thought this ironic. In one online blog, a poster sniped that Goldsmith was susceptible to the same vanities and insecurities her characters were. “As if she shouldn’t have been,” says Sharleen Jonasson, author of a satirical novel about the pursuit of beauty. “There is a sentiment that intelligent women should not fall prey to the beauty industry.” She notes that when TV newswoman Greta Van Susteren had her eyes done, many female journalists groused that a smart woman shouldn’t care so much about aging. What is smart, Jonasson believes, is for women to get more creative in combating unrealistic images of what it is to be beautiful. The author of It’s My Body and I’ll Cry If I Want To would like to see more women writers and other artists use wit and humor to skewer society’s obsession with youth and beauty. She’d be happy to have those interested begin connecting through her web site, www.sharleenjonasson.com.

“The media shows images of beautiful, thin, young women who have love, sex, wealth and success. These images are very, very seductive. I think these images seep right through the smart parts of our brains straight to the primordial, emotional part that needs shelter and love.” And it’s not just the media. “I knew beauty was crucial to life success after hearing my first fairy tale,” says Jonasson, who is currently writing a novel that twists the story of Cinderella.

"Art -- novels, but also movies, painting, sculpture and more – is an effective way to counteract the power of the media because art reaches our emotional core – goes to our brainstems, so to speak,” says the writer who admires Goldsmith’s savagely funny fiction. "Humor makes it more palatable."

It was around age 40 that Jonasson caught herself looking into the mirror, mirror on her own wall with the scrutiny of an adolescent – which did not please her. "I thought I should be smart enough not to worry about signs of age," says the Victoria, British Columbia-based writer. "I grew up considering myself a quasi-feminist and had a chip on my shoulder about the media's influence on women’s self-image. On the other hand, like many boomer women I grew up with a Ms. in one hand and a Glamour in the other -- torn between disgust for media images of female beauty and a deep desire to be more like the babes in magazines."

So Jonasson had to do some soul-searching about the issue of beauty before writing It’s My Body, a novel that's been called "wry, intelligent and objective, poking fun at an industry where others might have been tempted to uncover a soapbox." (January Magazine)

Not that she's against trying to look one's best: “I’ve got lots of pricey little jars of anti-wrinkle creams on my bathroom shelf,” she says. “They probably don’t make one bit of difference. No doubt I’ll continue to pay for them. But, personally, I stop at the needle or the knife. At least I have so far. I fear potential consequences.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sharleen Jonasson is a business journalist who has written for magazines, newspapers and corporate publications, in print and online, in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Her short fiction has been published in Mississippi Review and Blue Fiction. It's My Body and I'll Cry If I Want To is her first novel. She lives in Victoria, B.C., Canada
She has been interviewed by The Christian Science Monitor and recently appeared on CNN (Flipside), to discuss society’s obsessions with youth and beauty.

ABOUT THE BOOK
Beth Middleton, lapsed feminist, is recently separated from her husband and is the custodial parent of their frequently hostile 14-year-old daughter. An investigative journalist in a career slump, she's wary of the offer, from an unconventional source, of an exceptional assignment: Will she infiltrate an elite beauty clinic to uncover details of a state-of-the art treatment soon to be unleashed on an unsuspecting market? The anti-beauty guerrilla who briefs her claims the treatment could expose millions of women to possibly mortal danger.
Beth decides to do her bit to help loosen the hold an increasingly unrealistic beauty industry has over women including, potentially, her own daughter (and also perhaps resolve the ongoing contest between herself and her bathroom mirror). So she signs on as a client at this institution devoted to improving appearances - and finds many things are not what they appear to be at all.
Set in the not-too-distant future, It's My Body and I'll Cry If I Want To might change the way you look in the mirror.

It's My Body And I'll Cry If I Want To, by Sharleen Jonasson
ISBN 0-9687094-0-0
232 pages, trade paper, US$14.99/CAN$23.99
Distributed by Ingram; available through all major online booksellers or on order through bookstores.

CONTACT:
Sharleen Jonasson
Ph: 250-370-0344 (PST)
Cell: 250-818-2240 (PST)
www.sharleenjonasson.com