Various political arguments have been put forward against beauty: that it distracts us from more important issues; that it is the handmaiden of privilege; that it masks political interests. In "On Beauty and Being Just" Elaine Scarry challenges such theories, offering not only a passionate defence of beauty from the political arguments against it, but also that beauty does indeed have a positive effect on life. Rather than serving the privileged it presses all of us towards a greater concern for justice.