chapter5Media, Girls, and Body Image
how impossible imagesof physical perfectionare making our girls sick
The tyranny of the ideal image makes almost all ofus feel inferior … We are taught to hate our bodies,and thus learn to hate ourselves. This obsessionwith thinness is not a trivial issue; it cuts to thevery heart of women’s energy, power, andself-esteem. This is a major health problem.
—Jean Kilbourne, in Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders
The anorexic is weak, voiceless, and can only withdifficulty focus on a world beyond her plate.
—Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth
Many of our girls have “the look of sickness,the look of poverty, and the lookof nervous exhaustion.”
—Ann Hollander, Seeing Through Clothes
A PLAGUE IS ABROAD ...
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