The Body Project by Joan Jacobs Brumberg
The award-winning author of Fasting Girls explores what teenage girls have lost in this new world of freedom and consumerism--a world in which the body is their primary project."Fascinating ... riveting ... Women and girls should read this fine book together." --The New York Times Book Review
A hundred years ago, women were lacing themselves into corsets and teaching their daughters to do the same. The ideal of the day, however, was inner beauty: a focus on good deeds and a pure heart. Today American women have more social choices and personal freedom than ever before. But fifty-three percent of our girls are dissatisfied with their bodies by the age of thirteen, and many begin a pattern of weight obsession and dieting as early as eight or nine. Why?
In The Body Project, historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg answers this question, drawing on diary excerpts and media images from 1830 to the present. Tracing girls' attitudes toward topics ranging from breast size and menstruation to hair, clothing, and cosmetics, she exposes the shift from the Victorian concern with character to our modern focus on outward appearance--in particular, the desire to be model-thin and sexy. Compassionate, insightful, and gracefully written, The Body Project explores the gains and losses adolescent girls have inherited since they shed the corset and the ideal of virginity for a new world of sexual freedom and consumerism--a world in which the body is their primary project.
Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa and The Body Project are both award-winning books by Joan Jacobs Brumberg. Stephen H. is her name. She is the Weiss Professor of History, Human Development, and Women's Studies at Cornell University, where she teaches in the subjects of history, human development, and women's studies. The Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the MacDowell Colony have all honored her research and compassionate writing about American women and girls. She currently resides in Ithaca, New York. The Berkshire Book Prize for the best book by a woman historian, granted by the Berkshire Women's History Conference (1988); the John Hope Franklin Prize for the best book in American Studies, provided by the American Studies Association (1989); and the Eileen Basker Memorial Prize for the best book in the area of gender and mental health, given by the Society for Medicinal Anthropology, given by the Society for Medicinal Anthropology, given by the Society for Medicinal Anthropology, given by the Society for
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780679735298 |
| ISBN 10 | 0679735291 |
| Title | The Body Project |
| Author | Joan Jacobs Brumberg |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Random House USA Inc |
| Year published | 1998-09-01 |
| Number of pages | 336 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |