Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: How the Quest for Perfection is Harming Young Women

by Courtney E. Martin

Overview

This eye-opening look at twenty-first century culture and its impact on women reveals how food and weight obsession, driven in no small part by images of celebrities openly wasting away, threatens a new generation of girls as the feminist exhortation that 'you can do anything' is twisted into 'you must do everything.' It also inspires readers to consider what wonderful things might happen if the madness stopped once and for all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780425223369
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/02/2008
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Courtney E. Martin has written for the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and other publications, and received her BA from Barnard College and MA from New York University.

Table of Contents

Preface     xi
Introduction     1
Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters     17
From Good to Perfect: Feminism's Unintended Legacy     37
The Male Mirror: Her Father's Eyes     65
(Perfect) Girl Talk: Inside Today's Teenagers' Minds and Stomachs     92
Sex as a Cookie: Growing Up Hungry     114
The Revolution Still Will Not Be Televised: Pop, Hip-hop, Race, and the Media     141
What Men Want: The Truth About Attraction, Porn, and the Pursuit     168
All-or-Nothing Nation: Diets, Extreme Makeovers, and the Obesity Epidemic     194
Past the Dedication Is Disease: Athletic Obsession     221
The College Years: Body Obsession Boot Camp     245
The Real World Ain't No MTV: How the Body Becomes the Punching Bag for Post-College Disappointment     268
Spiritual Hunger     292
Stepping Through the Looking Glass: Our New Stories     316
Resource Guide     337
Notes     343
Acknowledgments     361
Index     363
Readers Guide     379

What People are Saying About This

Susie Orbach

An engaging and heartbreaking account of the tragic circumstances girls and women find themselves in today as they struggle to find a body they can feel secure with. (Susie Orbach, author of Fat Is a Feminist Issue)

Naomi Wolf

Fresh analysis...will bring insight to a whole new group of teenagers and young women.

Arianna Huffington

A long overdue takedown of our culture's unhealthy obsession with physical appearances—and what it's doing to our kids.

From the Publisher

“A long overdue takedown of our culture’s unhealthy obsession with physical appearances—and what it’s doing to our kids.”—Arianna Huffington

“Smart and spirited…thought-provoking reading.”—New York Times

“An engaging and heartbreaking account of the tragic circumstances girls and women find themselves in today as they struggle to find a body they can feel secure with.”—Susie Orbach, author of Fat Is a Feminist Issue

“Fresh analysis…will bring insight to a whole new group of teenagers and young women.” —Naomi Wolf

“Heartbreaking…Martin explores the forces that drive young women to sacrifice themselves on the altar of perfection.”—Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

A long overdue takedown of our culture’s unhealthy obsession with physical appearances—and what it’s doing to our kids.”—Arianna Huffington

“Smart and spirited…thought-provoking reading.”—New York Times

“An engaging and heartbreaking account of the tragic circumstances girls and women find themselves in today as they struggle to find a body they can feel secure with.”—Susie Orbach, author of Fat Is a Feminist Issue

“Fresh analysis…will bring insight to a whole new group of teenagers and young women.” —Naomi Wolf

“Heartbreaking…Martin explores the forces that drive young women to sacrifice themselves on the altar of perfection.”—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

Smart and spirited...thought-provoking reading.

New York Times