The Body Project

An Intimate History of American Girls

Author: Joan Jacobs Brumberg
ISBN: 9780679735298

"Timely and sympathetic . . . a work of impassioned advocacy."         --People 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 inner beauty to our modern focus on outward appearance--in particular, the desire to be model-thin and sexy. Compassionate, insigh

Publisher: Vintage Books
Publish Date: 1998

Subjects: Family & Relationships / Life Stages / Adolescence, Political Science / General, Social Science / Women's Studies

This book is available in the following Community Centers: Women's Center (Location: Body image)