Body Wars: Making Peace with Women's Bodies in the New Millennium

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Overview
Editorial Reviews
Product Details
Read an Excerpt
Table of Contents

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Overview

In this ground-breaking study, Margo Maine declares war on a culture that dismisses, devalues, and disempowers women by making them hate their own bodies. This book covers issues from dieting and weight prejudice to concepts of beauty and ageism to sports, fashion advertising, and propaganda. With practical strategies for activists, educators, and parents, this book also contains extensive references and appendices. Body Wars takes its place alongside The Beauty Myth and Reviving Ophelia in recognizing the constant assault women face, but goes further by giving them practical tools with which to fight back.

25 Ways to Love Your Body
Guidelines for Letter Writing
Top Ten Reasons to Give Up Dieting
Join the Fight Against Fashion Fascism
See the Homogenizing Effects of Cosmetic Surgery
Stop Violence Against Women
Fight Size, Sex, and Age Discrimination
Tactics for Healthy Eating
Facts about Kids and Dieting

"An expert on eating disorders explains how to overcome our society's unhealthy obsession with body image."

Editorial Reviews

Michael Levine

Margo Maine skillfully combines knowledge, passion, and her extensiveexperience as a model of activism to produce a clear set of active answers to the question, 'But what can anyone do about the culture of beauty and thinness?' I highly recommend this book to anyone who cares about the development of girls and better health for women and men.

Rita Freedman

Here is basic ammunition for all of us -victims caught in thecrossfire and fallout of Body Wars, their loved ones, and the many professionals who are helping them fight back. This valuable guide is user friendly, broad in scope, and filled with timely information and strategies.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780936077345
Publisher: Gurze Books
Publication date: 1/28/2000
Edition number: 1
Pages: 307
Sales rank: 1,173,695
Product dimensions: 5.71 (w) x 7.96 (h) x 0.84 (d)

Read an Excerpt

Each chapter addresses an issue that contributes to women’s discontent with their bodies within a sociocultural perspective. The topics will help you to question the culturally-endorsed assumptions that support Body Wars, such as our misguided and misinformed beliefs about weight, dieting, and obesity. A number of chapters focus on aspects of the beauty industry, including the role of fashion, modeling, beauty pageants, plastic surgery, and media influences via magazines and advertising.

The book also addresses the impact of violence against women, ageism, and a healthcare system historically biased to meet men’s needs and not women’s. Special influences on children are also examined, such as the pressure to diet, the impact of the Barbie doll, and how schools, sports and activities such as dance can contribute to Body Wars. Finally, a chapter is dedicated to men, who are increasingly the target of industries promoting Body Wars and who are desperately needed as teammates in the fight.

Each chapter concludes with strategies and resources for both personal and political change. I hope you find these both useful and inspiring.Every day, this issue becomes more urgent. Body Wars are now a global problem. No one is safe, as western media and information technology become integral influences in less developed countries. The damage to the human spirit and potential is growing exponentially. We must fight back.

Acknowledgments
Introduction ix
1 The Challenge: Respecting Women’s Bodies 1
2 Weightism: The “Politically Correct” Form of Prejudice 18
3 Obesity: Fact or Fiction? 31
4 Dieting: Deceit, Danger and Death 42
5 The Pursuit of Beauty: Empowering or Disempowering? 62
6 Advertising: Guerrilla Warfare 77
7 Magazines: Propaganda Machines 90
8 Fashion: Real Women Have Bellies 106
9 Models and Beauty Pageants: Ugly Business 116
10 Plastic Surgery: Self-Improvement or Self-Harm? 126
11 Violence Against Woman: The Deadliest Body War 143
12 Ageism: When Beauty, Wisdom and Experience Get Old 161
13 Women’s Health Care: An Oxymoron? 174
14 Kids on Diets: An Early Start for Body Wars 191
15 Barbie Dolls & Body Image: Toys Are Us 209
16 Schools: A Problem or Solution? 218
17 Sports: Just Another War Zone? 241
18 Ballet: The Olympics of Body Wars 264
19 Men: Targets and Teammates 277
Bibliography 291

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Anonymous

Posted October 31, 2002

Get the Skinny on Weighty Activism

Margo Maine has done it again in her book Body Wars. I learned how to connect myself with various groups working for a better community, to recognize examples of brainwashed thinking in myself and to do something about it. Margo Maine is an intelligent and empassioned researcher and activist and I am glad she continues to regale us with her comprehensive style and life-changing material.
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