Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #239587 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-07
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Synopsis
Based on extensive research and in-depth interviews with women from various socio-economic backgrounds, "Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters" lays bare a stark new world culture of eating disorders, food and body issues that affect virtually all of today's women. Though eating disorders first came to be recognised about 25 years ago, Martin's book shows how the issues surrounding body image have only become more complex, more dangerous and more difficult to treat: we now live in a world where over half of young women between the ages of 18 and 25 would prefer to be run over by a car than be fat, and the single group of teenagers most likely to consider a suicide attempt are girls who worry they are overweight. The current 'epidemic' of obesity is simply the flip side of the same coin. Drawing from interviews with sufferers, psychologists, nutritionists, and other experts, Courtney Martin's book reveals a whole new generation of 'perfect girls' who have been conditioned from a young age to over-achieve, self-sacrifice, and hate their own bodies - this, despite being raised by a generation of mothers well-versed in the lessons of feminism.

Filled with vivid and often heartbreaking personal stories, "Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters" is both a shocking expose and call to arms, offering hope for a new beginning, one young girl at a time.

Customer Reviews

An eye-opening wonder
I picked up this book for my dissertation and I was spellbound. I steamed through it in a matter of days, read every single part of it, captivated. This book is an incredibly important book for all women to read, it really tackles our body issues in a heartfelt, forceful and truthful way. It will open your eyes to the reality of how women percieve their bodies and the damage done because of our own internal battles with life, the media and the pirsuit of perfection. Every woman will identify with at least several aspects of this book, if not all of it. Its a brilliant update and elaboration on Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth. (written nearly 20 years ago but is still alarmingly relevant)Less confrontational than The beauty myth, this book is filled with personal stories from women who have struggled with the battle between being a perfect girl and a starving daughter.