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Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, Courteney Martin.
I had high hopes for this book, mostly because Courteney Martin participates in the feminist and liberal blogosphere. She seems to be a clever, well-spoken advocate for young woman. She knows about the body acceptance movement. A book about the normalcy of young women hating their bodies, and therefore turning their energies to an ultimately self-destructive end? It sounded perfect.
Yeah. No.
The problems with this book can be characterized by a one-off line in which Martin reports that "eating disorders may be the only sin God can't tolerate." She means it to be an exploration of why young women should be respecting their bodies as divine expressions of diversity in nature, or their own spirituality, or an opportunity to change things. But ultimately she comes across as too general, negative and condemning the actions of these already troubled young women. She states the cases of several women suffering from eating disorders and the societal issues that contribute to them, which is wonderful work, but she doesn't begin to speculate on how to fix the problem. How to prevent it from spreading to the next generation. How to save your daughter, or your sister, or yourself. "It's a shame, I hope they get help," may get you a book deal but it resolves exactly nothing.
I also felt like Martin took a misstep in including obesity in a book about eating disorders, because after several chapters of saying how these young women were killing themselves by not eating, she... warns the girls themselves not to eat TOO much. Find a "healthy" weight or die from heart disease, and nobody wants THAT. Never mind that drastic weight loss often puts the body's setpoint higher and so individuals recovering from eating disorders may end up heavier than when they started. Never mind that this is a ridiculous thing for someone involved in treating anorexia or bulimia to worry about, people getting fat on their bones. Never mind that the body dysmorphia typical in ED might make them think 60 pounds is too fat, let alone 160 or (GASP!) 260. No, Martin tells them to try exercise (which is a good way to reconnect to one's body, but the book itself discusses exercise bulimia as a disease) and to shoot for that narrow middle ground between skinny, healthy, fat according to the culture and actually being FAT. Agree or disagree with body acceptance as a movement, but many women recovering from ED have found it a liberating philosophy that allows them to heal. Give people the option if you know it's there.
So, yes. I can't recommend this book.
I had high hopes for this book, mostly because Courteney Martin participates in the feminist and liberal blogosphere. She seems to be a clever, well-spoken advocate for young woman. She knows about the body acceptance movement. A book about the normalcy of young women hating their bodies, and therefore turning their energies to an ultimately self-destructive end? It sounded perfect.
Yeah. No.
The problems with this book can be characterized by a one-off line in which Martin reports that "eating disorders may be the only sin God can't tolerate." She means it to be an exploration of why young women should be respecting their bodies as divine expressions of diversity in nature, or their own spirituality, or an opportunity to change things. But ultimately she comes across as too general, negative and condemning the actions of these already troubled young women. She states the cases of several women suffering from eating disorders and the societal issues that contribute to them, which is wonderful work, but she doesn't begin to speculate on how to fix the problem. How to prevent it from spreading to the next generation. How to save your daughter, or your sister, or yourself. "It's a shame, I hope they get help," may get you a book deal but it resolves exactly nothing.
I also felt like Martin took a misstep in including obesity in a book about eating disorders, because after several chapters of saying how these young women were killing themselves by not eating, she... warns the girls themselves not to eat TOO much. Find a "healthy" weight or die from heart disease, and nobody wants THAT. Never mind that drastic weight loss often puts the body's setpoint higher and so individuals recovering from eating disorders may end up heavier than when they started. Never mind that this is a ridiculous thing for someone involved in treating anorexia or bulimia to worry about, people getting fat on their bones. Never mind that the body dysmorphia typical in ED might make them think 60 pounds is too fat, let alone 160 or (GASP!) 260. No, Martin tells them to try exercise (which is a good way to reconnect to one's body, but the book itself discusses exercise bulimia as a disease) and to shoot for that narrow middle ground between skinny, healthy, fat according to the culture and actually being FAT. Agree or disagree with body acceptance as a movement, but many women recovering from ED have found it a liberating philosophy that allows them to heal. Give people the option if you know it's there.
So, yes. I can't recommend this book.