This essay confronts the problem of voice in feminist economic discourse. The author reinscribes feminist economic theory in the essay tradition of feminist literary production to highlight the potential contribution of poetic imagination to a feminist revisioning of economics.

Along with the new products, modes of behavior, and economic relations that followed China's 2001 accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) came the introduction of new words to everyday language. The term meinu jingji, “beauty economy,” is increasingly ubiquitous, describing...