Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body

by Susan Bordo, Leslie Heywood

"Unbearable Weight is brilliant. From an immensely knowledgeable feminist perspective, in engaging, jargonless (!) prose, Bordo analyzes a whole range of issues connected to the body—weight and weight loss, exercise, media images, movies, advertising, anorexia and bulimia, and much more—in a way that makes sense of our current social landscape—finally! This is a great book for anyone who wonders why women's magazines are always describing delicious food as 'sinful' and why there is a cake called Death by Chocolate. Loved it!"—Katha Pollitt, Nation columnist and author of Subject to Debate: Sense and Dissents on Women, Politics, and Culture (2001)

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Sociology, Gender, Gender Studies, Academic

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Susan Bordo is known for the clarity, accessibility, and contemporary relevance of her writing. Her first book, The Flight to Objectivity, has become a classic of feminist philosophy. In 1993, increasingly aware of our culture's preoccupation with weight and body image, she published Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, a book that is still widely read and assigned in classes today. During speaking tours for that book, she encountered many young men who asked, "What about us?" The result was The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private (1999). Both books were highly praised by reviewers, with Unbearable Weight named a 1993 Notable Book by the New York Times and The Male Body featured in Mademoiselle, Elle, Vanity Fair, NPR, and MSNBC. Both books have been translated into many languages, and individual chapters, many of which are considered paradigms of lucid writing, are frequently re-printed in collections and writing textbooks. The Creation of Anne Boleyn: A New Look at England's Most Notorious Queen, was published to critical acclaim by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in April, 2013. The Destruction of Hillary Clinton followed in 2017. She lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her husband, daughter, three dogs, a cat, and a cockatiel.

Bordo received her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1982. She recently retired from her position as Otis A. Singletary Chair in the Humanities and Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Kentucky.

Reviews

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unbearable Weight is an analysis of the body in relation to culture. I expected to read about eating disorders and disordered body images, but instead discovered a new way of thinking about the body and culture. "Psychopathology, as Jules Henry has said, 'is the final outcome of all that is wrong with a culture.' " The author, Susan Bordo, takes "the psychopathologies that develop within a culture, far from being anomalies or aberrations, to be characteristic expressions of that culture; to be, indeed, the crystallization of much that is wrong with it." This is true, this is a way of thinking about culture that I very much appreciate. Watching Bordo analyze our collective body and weight obsessions and finding them to be an expression of "some of the central ills of our culture" is refreshing. Bordo speaks with frankness and certainty about issues that all women and many men will quickly grasp. She does not argue or persuade so much as she lays out, explains, and analyzes, providing the reader with a deeper understanding of what she has always, deep down, known. Being aware of something doesn't (ever, in my experience) mean you can escape it, though, so reading Bordo was quite healing and calming for me.

Bordo breaks down the personal and cultural effects of a society that is inundated with subtle and not so subtle messages about how your body should look. As we all know, these effects are devastating. This was published in 1993, and since then so much has changed; unfortunately, the external and therefore internal pressure to be thin and fit has become more intense, not less. We all know we shouldn't participate in self-loathing or body-bashing (I am, look, feel fat). Knowing we shouldn't do this only loads us with more guilt and negativity when we do it, especially since we are also told that being obsessed with superficial things such as appearance is vain and frivolous. Bordo provides much-needed breathing space for anyone who has internalized the onslaught of media images - let's not be angry at ourselves for our "imperfect" bodies or our obsessive thoughts about weight; let's externalize that anger and refocus the gaze not on ourselves but on the culture that produces these images and illnesses.

I found in Bordo's essays validation of many things I already thought and felt, and an in-depth exploration of many ideas I've been briefly exposed to over the years. Some of the ideas are the male gaze, the concept and truth of which fascinates me in itself and also because I feel that gaze constantly; psychopathology as the crystallization of a culture, a lovely phrase for an awesome idea; a heavy critique of postmodernism, which surprised me, as I've always equated postmodernism with leftist thought and leanings - and therefore feminism. Yet Bordo manages to free herself from postmodernism for the sake of feminism, or rather, for the sake of women. Our lives, the images we are constantly exposed to, are so dependent on social constructs and loaded historical meaning that to strip that meaning away and say it exists in a vacuum certainly does damage to the women who absorb the images and intuitively understand their meanings. To be told that they have no meaning is demoralizing to say the least. And so - away with you, postmodernism! Bordo's argument and conclusions are of course in no way so simplistic, but I like to simplify my life and so - away, postmodernism.

Bordo devotes a chapter to the regulation of pregnancy by the law, to the autonomy of the rights of fathers and fetuses while the agency of pregnant women is stripped away. This is interesting, but I prefer her ruminations on the idealization and demonization of the female body in our culture, and as a new mother I found it helpful to apply her ideas on woman to my experience as a mother.

First, the "archetypal image of the female: as hungering, voracious, all-needing, and all-wanting." Bordo quotes a young woman who says that " '...the anorectic is always convinced she is taking up too much space, eating too much, eating food too much. I've never felt that way, but I've often felt I was too much - too much emotion, too much need, too loud and demanding, too much there, if you know what I mean.' " I do know what you mean! And I'm sure most women do, too.

Add to this the "powerful ideological underpinning...for the cultural containment of female appetite: the notion that women are most gratified by feeding and nourishing others, not themselves." Our society "casts women as chief emotional and physical nurturer. The rules for this construction of femininity (and I speak here in a language both symbolic and literal) require that women learn to feed others, not the self, and to construe any desires for self-nurturance and self-feeding as greedy and excessive. Thus, women must develop a totally other-oriented emotional economy."

Let me speak to both her literal and symbolic meanings here. I nursed my daughter for 11 months. I did it because I knew it would make her healthy - which it has - but behind that was the feeling that it was what I should do, that I would fail as a mother if I did not provide her with milk for the first year of her life. Indeed, my breast mild dried up a month before her first year, and I was crushed with shame. I felt I had failed. Why did my milk dry up? I was working full-time, attending graduate school full-time, caring for and feeding an infant, and managing a house. I stopped feeding myself because I simply didn't have enough energy to prepare food. My mother often prepared meals for me - because, well, that's what mothers do; isn't that the sad point? - but all other requests for help went unmet. I didn't have the energy to cook, and then I simply didn't have the will to cook out of resentment that I wasn't being helped or being fed - and so I subsisted on pretzels and chocolate milk until my body had enough.

From all this follows the body issues that will arise from having a child - the soft belly, the deflated breasts that are so unacceptable in our culture and cause men and women such disgust that "mommy makeovers" - combination breast lifts, tummy tucks, liposuction, and vaginoplasty - are a growing trend after having children. How sad that there is no space in our culture for the image of a real, beautiful postpartum body. Unfortunately we instead have "the tantalizing (and mystifying) ideal of a perfectly managed and regulated self, within a consumer culture which has made the actual management of hunger and desire intensely problematic. In this context, food refusal, weight loss, commitment to exercise, and ability to tolerate bodily pain and exhaustion have become cultural metaphors for self-determination, will, and moral fortitude."

Bordo also speaks repeatedly, as some of the above quotes have touched upon, to the sheer amount of time and energy it takes to meet the standards set for us. "Yet, each hour, each minute spent in anxious pursuit of that ideal (for it does not come naturally to most mature women) is in fact time and energy taken from inner development and social achievement." She says that "through the exacting and normalizing disciplines of diet, makeup, and dress - central organizing principles of time and space in the day of many women....we continue to memorize on our bodies the feel and conviction of lack, of insufficiency, of never being good enough." Yet another reason to feel guilty? for me to feel bad for waxing my eyebrows and putting makeup on in the morning? Not necessarily. "Many, if not most, women also are willing (often, enthusiastic) participants in cultural practices that objectify and sexualize us." Yet "feminist cultural criticism is not a blueprint for the conduct of personal life...and does not empower (or require) individuals to 'rise above' their culture or become martyrs to feminist ideals." The goal is edification and understanding. Excellent - because I don't plan to stop with the makeup or the obsessive grooming that takes time and energy away from my participation in the real world. I am deeply enmeshed in our culture and the expectations it has of me. I don't plan or expect to escape, but I do have a deeper understanding of myself, my body issues, and will actively resist the "temptation" to become hard and plastic.

The reviews on the back cover, as well as the foreword to the 10 year anniversary edition, claim that Bordo is jargon-free. Nope. No, she's not. Unless you're steeped in academia, this book won't be a breeze; but Bordo does write clearly, and her ideas contain the sort of depth and complexity and appreciation for nuance that make my mouth water. They make me...hungry. Totally worth it.

[Kyley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very difficult book for me to finish. I started out engaged; her discussion about the history of the mind/body split was very interesting and the writing on hysteria made me want more on the topic. In general, I think this where she shines: the history of ideas. But as the book went on, it dragged. A lot.

It's very clearly a product of 1993, and in that way it's not anyone's fault I didn't always connect with the data points. That being said, this felt at times like a spotty example of cultural studies, with cherry picked examples holding up the author's claims. In general, I'm not a fan of Bordo's theoretical position; I think she simplifies Foucault and misses Lacan/Derrida /postmodernist notions of subjectivity entirely. I just can't quite connect with Bordo's discussion of gender; she strains away from the binary but does not make a break. Despite her apologies, I cannot help but feel that male/female are real poles in her universe. (In general, Bordo apologizes for and explains away her position a lot, which was an annoying writing tick to say the least.) Ultimately, I'd suggest reading the first 100-150 pages and calling it a day.

PS The 80/90s ads included as images are worth their weight in gold.

[El · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of essays written by Susan Bordo in the late 80s and the early 90s, focusing on the way women in Western culture view their bodies, and the idea of "perfection" as a feminine goal. In spite of being rather outdated (though the ads included throughout are pretty classic - holy shoulder pads, Batman!), the information is still, sadly, relevant today. Our media still dictates what is expected of women (and men) especially when it comes to what is considered not only normal but also preferred.

Bordo covers the usual topics, such as anorexia and bulimia, but also discusses cosmetic surgery which was, at the time of publication, a somewhat new and popular way of perfecting ones body. There is some repetition throughout the essays - a common problem with these sorts of collections, but it's a decent amount of information and worth reading more than once anyway.

I've always been fairly interested in pop culture references and how what occurs in popular culture becomes the norm, the standard, the expectation. Bordo handles this fairly well, even though they may seem irrelevant to modern readers, especially those who didn't grow up through the 80s or even 90s. The essay, Material Girl, for example, focuses on Madonna who in her early years was proud of her body the way it was, and implied that would never change. A few years later, however, she had lost considerable weight from a diet and exercise plan, and made cosmetic changes to her body.

We saw a similar change with Gwen Stefani who, I think we all agree, has lost a considerable amount of weight, especially when compared to the Gwen Stefani of the 90s when she first found popularity on MTV with Just a Girl - then an athletic-appearing woman with a strong-physique.

But herein lies part of the problem - it's hard to talk about these things without bringing up other examples in media, especially when a celebrity's appearance changes so noticeably in the public eye, and then we all talk and wonder and that makes us all bad people, doesn't it, because we're not letting these people live authentic lives.

In any case.

So I appreciated Bordo's book, though would especially be interested in reading an updated version of these essays if Bordo felt so inclined. There were a few aspects that seemed especially outdated, and I have to wonder if Bordo still stands behind all of her opinions proposed in this collection, published in 1993. Lord knows I no longer still believe a lot of what I believed in 1993. You're all welcome for that, by the way. Because I believed a lot of stupid shit in 1993.

There are also similarities to Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth which was published just a couple years before Bordo's book, but they clearly were writing about much of the same issues at the same time, and we should all appreciate the fact that they were calling that shit out. Only when we realize and admit there's a problem can we start to fix it and heal, collectively.

[Beverly Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that Susan Bordo takes usually difficult-to-understand theory and applies it to anorexia and body image. I turned to her because many women my age have decided to starve themselves. She mainly deals with younger women, but reading this has helped me understand the complexities of eating disorders-- from wanting control over at least one aspect of life to being bullied into cultural submission through the barrage of images projecting ideals of femininity, beauty, and success. This book is somewhat dated; however, I think her analysis is useful.

Because much of her analysis is based on Michel Foucault, whom she describes as saying that power is diffuse, her recommendations for resistance is somewhat limited to individuals' personal decisions. I would prefer a movement.

[Delirious Disquisitions · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite essays on feminism and the female body. Coherent, very well organized argument. Well worth a read. 5 Stars

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the introduction to this collection of essays, Susan Bordo names Foucault as the primary influence on her thought, and on the ideas she explores here. As soon as I read that, I said "Oh, no. That's a bad sign," fearing that the book would be too postmodern for me. Happily, it's not. The writing is clear, engaging and fairly accessible (it can still be slow going, especially in the final three essays which deal specifically with postmodernism), and she does actually make recognizable, clearly-stated arguments in every one of her essays, as opposed to much of postmodernist writing, which spends most of its time studiously avoiding argument. (Harrumph!)

Anyway, most of the book has little to do with postmodernism at all; it's a discussion of the body in Western culture, particularly at the time the book was written (early 1990s), though it also makes reference to earlier historical periods. Much time is spent discussing eating disorders as logical outgrowths of contemporary society's conflicting attitudes toward appetites --- we still honor the Protestant work ethic of delayed gratification and self-denial, but our economy has shifted to one dependent on lots of consumer spending. Until recently, we solved that problem by making men the producers and (middle- and upper-class) women the consumers (in the housewife role), but with the second wave of feminism that dichotomy collapsed. Bordo also draws a connection between historical periods of greater social and political freedom for women and more-restrictive beauty standards.

What I liked most about her cultural explanations for eating disorders and the thin ideal is her refusal to limit herself to one "reading" of thinness. She prioritizes the different readings, of course --- she would have to, in order to avoid incoherence --- but she recognizes that beauty ideals say a lot of different things about the culture from which they come. To women who embrace the thin ideal, it's not just about looking like the models in the ads; it's also about repudiating maternity as the only destiny a woman can have, and claiming historically "masculine" virtues (those aforementioned traits of self-denial and striving) as one's own. She emphasizes, however, that these are just another aspect of the still-rigid, and still-unequal gender binary: extreme thinness is about repudiating what makes the body characteristically feminine, just as much female success is (still) achieved at the cost of uncritically accepting, and forcing oneself into, the masculine mold.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way, way more academic than I had anticipated. I found myself rereading lines 2-3x. You definitely need some background in women's studies/philosophy to understand all the references to different philosophers and theories. It was so dense; it took me six months to complete.

The parts that were slightly more accessible in talking about mass media, culture and women were pretty interesting. Not sure I agreed with all of it, but it was presented in a way that at least made me consider it.

[Aisling · Rating 5 out of 5]

about as interesting as diss reading gets

[s ☭]

this book was clearly written in the 1990s, and it would be really cool to hear bordo's perspective on how things have changed (if at all), and how her theories can be applied to more modern societal developments. i especially liked the chapters about hunger as ideology and the politics and power in female hunger.

however.

as someone who has suffered from it, i am often hesitant when anorexia (along with other eating disorders) is analyzed from purely psychological/analytical or theoretical lenses (which i don't think bordo tries to do, but still). i just don't think that projecting metaphors and symbols onto eds fully address their multifaceted natures and scientific backing, nor the sheer lack of logic and cognitive dissonance and endless, bordering on obsessive, compulsions that so often accompany them. a lot of the theories in this book bear quite a lot of merit, but i still think the differentiation between disordered eating and a full blown eating disorder that can affect someone for and in so many ways is something to keep in mind while engaging with bordo's text.

that being said, i found this book both incredibly thought provoking and relevant; the analysis of how the female form is subconsciously categorized as passive, the commentary on historical constructions and views of the body, the politics of and power in slenderness and hunger, and the gendered nature of philosophy were especially all well written and clearly argued.

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been thinking about Bordo a lot as I've been riding the bus during rush hour. The logistics of body and space and how it relates to expectations of women are frustrating. That I (and women) are expected to tuck and pull into ourseleves on our shared seats while the man sitting next to me sprawls out and is allowed culturally to take up more space. Bordo speaks to a lot of this (maybe not within this context) and applies it to the eating disordered. Interesting stuff. I'm going to kick my legs out more often.

[rai · Rating 4 out of 5]

bodyodyodyodyodyodyodyody ohhh my god. really enjoyable book… feminism has always been a bit (?) to me, something that ive been interested in but also distanced myself from due to the animosity(??) towards “feminists”, third wave ones in particular. how they’re always treated as outcasts, as a blue haired gal who is fighting for #freethenipple or something. but i want to change that.. i want to get to know their story . susan bordo is a terrific writer and this was the first time ive read a philosophy book and went ohhhh so these are the methods that are used in the field.

bordo grounds feminism from the theoretical back into the body, physically by looking at the eating disorders “trend” in the 80s and 90s, and metaphysically by looking at how the erasure of the body in our postmodern world has led to consequences about academic thought. the body as a site of cultural anxiety, the desire for control over uncontrollable processes, where she compares the uptick in eating disorders as one that has the same roots in victorian era hysteria, but manifests in this pattern due to contemporary factors. bordos definition of postmodernism is one that involves the proliferation of images, especially through TV and advertisement, and she does a daanngg good job of looking at and breaking down advertisements. which i really wish my ereader copy showed!!!

i have more thoughts but i’ll probably update them later i am sooo sleepy

[Mya Carrizosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was an incredible read. the last essay especially was fascinating to me, discussing how postmodernist deconstruction of gender and even disregard of gender as a relevant category can work to undermine the utility of using gender (even as it generalizes nuanced experience) as a tool to analyze dynamics at play in a situation. huge fan will probably read again.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb. Insightful. Thought-provoking. Still relevant in 2020.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a horrible, difficult, yet wildly necessary read.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Important and helpful work, the collection just felt a touch repetitive/redundant

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were some fabulous essays in here

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Susan Bordo is one of my favorite feminist theorists, and I love the way she handles politics of the body. Though originally published in the mid 80s, most of her observations about advertising, anorexia, bulimia, and body image still stand.

I'm a bit of a Susan Bordo fangirl, and I love the way that she takes high theory and writes a book that is engaging, understandable, and influential. Her discussion of Foucaultian systems of control and the anorexic body are particularly spot-on, and I think the way she correlates those systems with modern advertising is particularly enlightened.

This is an absolutely critical text for anyone looking to better understand the way feminism interprets body image.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of essays is truly amazing and eye-opening. I really enjoyed every single one. Susan Bordo does a great job of creating a dialogue about eating disorders and highlighting the many issues that surround such topics in society today. She is able to recognize them for the difficult topics that they are while also making them incredibly easy to understand and bring the reader into the topic in a way that makes you question "Why haven't we looked at it like this before?"

Would definitely recommend to anyone looking for an enlightening, educational read.

[Teleseparatist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than the excerpts have led me to believe; I particularly enjoyed the chapter on reproductive rights and the critique of postmodern disembodiment in theory. Highly recommended and quite relevant.

[Stan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best thing I've read on what are called "eating disorders." Essential reading for people who care about women who have contradictory relationships with food.

[Wanderingdragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not totally sure how you can start a book with an essay on how women, upon becoming pregnant, are treated as less than human in the eyes of medicine and the law, and then end the book praising a philosopher pretender who says all gender is performance.

Overall this is heavily academic, and if you want to fully comprehend the meaning I suggest you be first familiar with Foucault since he is heavily referenced.

The writing itself is unnecessarily circuitous. Bordo’s sentence construction approach is like taking a walk through a forest, then upon seeing a bird stopping to admire it, and upon finding a brook crossing it and then coming back over it (with many interjected thoughts in parentheses) before finally stepping back on the path to end the sentence. Her writing style is very dense.

I picked up this book because I wanted a deeper understanding of my personal body image issues. I do have many pages bookmarked for later journaling. It’s really quite shocking how relevant a book written nearly 30 years ago still is. In one of the essays, I was particularly shocked to discover that anorexics often will desire to surgically mutilate themselves to remove the male gaze. Incredible how much we are still affected by attempts to control how we are perceived.

What I was also interested to learn about were the pre-Dove adverts promoting body diversity. The body positivity movement often suggests Dove as the first, but apparently that is not quite true. In relation, I am very interested to explore how the Fat Acceptance movement fits into Bordo’s framework. It’s all very interesting to consider current social issues in the context of this work.

One thing I will take umbrage with Bordo on is that I do not feel she accurately represented bodybuilding. She merely shows one advert of a woman’s shoulder doing what is supposed to be pull-ups. My perception of bodybuilding is really in the context of bodybuilding competitions where women will build a lot of muscle and diet down to a very low body fat percentage. This does not seem to be the definition Susan is using.

My one other complaint about the book is the later chapters are all about post-modernism and not necessarily directly about dealing with women’s bodies. So if you are reading this book with similar purpose to mine, you may wish to just skip the post-modern essays. The essays, however, are insightful to the current culture more broadly.

[mica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure if it's because I chose to read this front to back, but while I found this book interesting and informative at the onset, by the end it felt a bit like re-treading the same points over and over again. This book has a great deal of information in it, but it is dense and academic as hell.

It should be noted that this book does show its age. I read through it dreading the mention of queer folk - I don't know whether Bordo is a TERF or not, but I am always frightened to learn about where feminists of her generation stand on that point. I think it should also be noted, although Bordo identifies some issues that specifically affect people of colour (and particularly women of colour), this book still didn't quite seem to fully engage with those issues, often treating them as a side note rather than worthy of a full essay.

[Sophy H · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm torn over this book . The subject matter, whilst fascinating and of huge interest to me, felt overblown and inflated by Bordo's (only in my opinion) unnecessary use of grandiose and florid language to accentuate her points. I'm no eejit like (!!!) but I felt utterly unintelligent when reading particular sections of this book. Bordo's obsession with postmodernism for example and her scathing remarks about fellow female authors on contemporary feminist literature felt entirely unnecessary. Surely all feminist experience is subjective (as Bordo herself points out) and open to interpretation.
Whilst the concepts first presented were of major interest, I felt as if I had to swim through a treacle of pretension to arrive where I wanted to be with this book. Never mind.

[Alvin Steviro · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this legendary book, Bordo is successful in maintaining the balance between the abstract philosophical thought and social criticism that is aimed to tangible issues that we are all exposed to everyday.
While there are some tendencies to romanticize subjectivity, Bordo has nevertheless given us a sight to problems we might not have seen before.
The discussion of a (female) human body in this book challenges both our biased cultural and scientific point of view that omits women's struggles within their own bodies.

[Madeline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't say much else other than: 'Wow!' An excellent and spot-on book written on the subject of women's body image in Western culture.

Only downside might be the third and final section of the edition of the book I read veers more into philosophy than sociology, anthropology, and (bio)psychology, but still covers some important ground related to the latter three fields.

Would highly recommend for women struggling to understand their own body image issues and for those looking to help someone with body image issues.

[Thai Divone · Rating 3 out of 5]

While full of interesting facts and ideas, the book, at least for me, doesn't live up, from a 2017 point of view, to its expectations. The ideas within it were so implemented that now it feels more like an historical artifact than as a still revealing addition. One point of interest still remains highly illuminating, though, and it is the article "Anorexia Nervosa", especially regarding its thesis of sexual boundry crossing, in terms of the anorexic body.

[a. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was both difficult to read and difficult to finish. It's essentially required reading when you're going to later be engaging in rhetoric about the body and trauma, but it is definitely a product of its time. Offers some genuinely interesting insight into the split between mind and body, and does succeed at making theory more accessible and easily understandable. It just doesn't withstand the test of time imo.

[becca barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, a very interesting read, especially from a contemporary perspective and reflecting on changing body ideals. While I disagreed with some of the theories raised around eating disorders and their development, I do agree with the notion that both culture and genetics play a shaping role in the onset of these disorders. Sending love to all women who have to exist in this society, it’s hellish out here.

[Raina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the first two thirds - but disagreed with and thought that the last third of the book was uniformed and played into toxic white feminism. I enjoyed the critique and unpacking of anorexia and the female body, especially with the western correlation of female hunger and sexual desire. Definitely not for the faint of heart!!

[Amanda Chiu · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit outdated which shines through in a lot of the perspectives shared but also a really critical work for talking about the body and cultural discourse. I enjoyed but there have been a lot of way more productive (in my opinion) writings on the body that more accurately capture nuance and intersectionality (this book kind of adheres to a binary).