What are we really talking about when we discuss skin care as self care? And why is the subject of how women spend their time and money so contentious? I asked Jia Tolentino, the New Yorker staff writer who wrote The Year That Skin Care Became a Coping Mechanism, for her take. "For women, the body has always been a locus of control, where so much else about women’s lives is uncontrollable," she says. "The importance that is placed on beauty is informed by a long history of women being seen as decorative objects… and that is political. Everything we do exists within power structures that are worth analyzing.”