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Beyond Measure
A touching, tender and at times funny account of a woman's struggle for stature in a 4 foot 8 1/2 inch tall body, Beyond Measure speaks to the heart of soul-breaking attempts to fit an arbitrary and elusive cultural ideal of physical perfection. Being short isn't the problem, Ellen Frankel insists. Instead, the real difficulties lie in the social bias against short people. Ellen shares the difficulties of living short in a world in which stereotypes are based on gender and size. She moves beyond her own experience into the political realm in revealing how pharmaceutical companies--with government backing--are expanding the market for human growth hormone treatment by reclassifying healthy short children as patients in "need" of such injections in hopes of making them taller. She shares the dilemma of being subjected to simultaneous messages that her physical body should be bigger--that is, taller, but not wider--while her expansive spiritual body should be smaller. As a result of too much attention on the external rather than the internal workings of the soul, Ellen flirts with eating disorders and unhealthy relationships with powerful males in an attempt to compensate for her feelings of not "measuring up." In the process, her real self slips farther away. The path out of her dilemma lies in the shadow of the tallest mountain on Earth. It is through a spiritual pilgrimmage to Nepal that Ellen discovers her own strength and spirit, and that we are all dwarfed by Everest and beyond measure.
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Beyond Measure
A touching, tender and at times funny account of a woman's struggle for stature in a 4 foot 8 1/2 inch tall body, Beyond Measure speaks to the heart of soul-breaking attempts to fit an arbitrary and elusive cultural ideal of physical perfection. Being short isn't the problem, Ellen Frankel insists. Instead, the real difficulties lie in the social bias against short people. Ellen shares the difficulties of living short in a world in which stereotypes are based on gender and size. She moves beyond her own experience into the political realm in revealing how pharmaceutical companies--with government backing--are expanding the market for human growth hormone treatment by reclassifying healthy short children as patients in "need" of such injections in hopes of making them taller. She shares the dilemma of being subjected to simultaneous messages that her physical body should be bigger--that is, taller, but not wider--while her expansive spiritual body should be smaller. As a result of too much attention on the external rather than the internal workings of the soul, Ellen flirts with eating disorders and unhealthy relationships with powerful males in an attempt to compensate for her feelings of not "measuring up." In the process, her real self slips farther away. The path out of her dilemma lies in the shadow of the tallest mountain on Earth. It is through a spiritual pilgrimmage to Nepal that Ellen discovers her own strength and spirit, and that we are all dwarfed by Everest and beyond measure.
18.95 In Stock
Beyond Measure

Beyond Measure

by Ellen Frankel
Beyond Measure
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Beyond Measure

Beyond Measure

by Ellen Frankel

Overview

A touching, tender and at times funny account of a woman's struggle for stature in a 4 foot 8 1/2 inch tall body, Beyond Measure speaks to the heart of soul-breaking attempts to fit an arbitrary and elusive cultural ideal of physical perfection. Being short isn't the problem, Ellen Frankel insists. Instead, the real difficulties lie in the social bias against short people. Ellen shares the difficulties of living short in a world in which stereotypes are based on gender and size. She moves beyond her own experience into the political realm in revealing how pharmaceutical companies--with government backing--are expanding the market for human growth hormone treatment by reclassifying healthy short children as patients in "need" of such injections in hopes of making them taller. She shares the dilemma of being subjected to simultaneous messages that her physical body should be bigger--that is, taller, but not wider--while her expansive spiritual body should be smaller. As a result of too much attention on the external rather than the internal workings of the soul, Ellen flirts with eating disorders and unhealthy relationships with powerful males in an attempt to compensate for her feelings of not "measuring up." In the process, her real self slips farther away. The path out of her dilemma lies in the shadow of the tallest mountain on Earth. It is through a spiritual pilgrimmage to Nepal that Ellen discovers her own strength and spirit, and that we are all dwarfed by Everest and beyond measure.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781597190053
Publisher: Pearlsong Press
Publication date: 04/28/2006
Pages: 264
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Ellen Frankel is a licensed clinical social worker and co-author of Beyond a Shadow of a Diet: The Therapist's Guide to Treating Compulsive Eating and The Diet Survivor's Handbook: 60 Lessons in Eating, Acceptance, and Self-Care. In addition to writing full-time, Ellen speaks at conferences and serves as a consultant. She lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

What People are Saying About This

Marilyn Wann

If you have ever measured your height or your weight and felt good or bad about yourself as a result, you need this book. In its pages, Ellen Frankel makes an important contribution to human liberation by telling the most fabulous story that can be told, the story of a person coming fully into her own. This book is thought-provoking, heart-rending, and a genuine solace for people of all sizes.
—(Marilyn Wann, author of FAT!SO? Because You Don't Have to Apologize for Your Size)

Alan Cassels

Delightful and provocative both as a personal journey and as a candid look at how the social prejudice against short stature has been reconfigured as a medical issue.
—(Alan Cassels, co-author of Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients)

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