From: seid@paxvax.EE.CORNELL.EDU (Steve Seidman)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Fasting Girls (a book review)
Date: 17 Nov 1992 18:43:57 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
Originator: muffy@remarque.berkeley.edu

Fasting Girls, by Joan Jacobs Brumberg (professor @ Cornell University)

a book review:

This book is a historian's perspective on the development
of the modern disease of anorexia nervosa.  It traces the
disease from it's first recognition to the present and shows
the interplay between the medical community and society
culture at large.  Careful attention is givien to the decline
of religion, rising materialism, onset of industrial revolution
and the implication of these on the clothing industry among
many other things.  Here's just one example of the many insights
in the book.  Brumberg demonstrates how mass production led to
standardized clothing sizes which with the help of new advertising
helped to reinforce the concept of a "standard physique" (especially
for women).  She indicates that this helped to intensify the nature
of the already pre-existing eating disorders.

        This book is such a rich study it would be impossible to
summarize it all.  I really enjoyed the finesse of balancing class
analysis, medical history, how religious sentiment got mixed into
the language of dieting, along with the many insights on the rich
interplay of culture.  I want to emphasize that this book isn't just
idle speculation but backed up by really solid research, examination
of archival material,and lots of really interesting historical information.
Moreover it is fun to read, unusual for academic books geared towards the
general audience.  (Books geared to academic specialists are even more
likely to be dull, but no one usually seems to raise a fuss about it)

        Politically, the first chapter is rather telling.  Brumberg
first summarizes the "popular perception" of the disease along with
the alarmist kind of statistics in "women's magazines"  She then seems
to subtly distance herself from a lot of these sort of fuzzy stats as
she embarks on a more convincing sort of historical approach, while claiming
that she does wish to "be a feminist"  One seriously wonders about the
compatibility of political feminism with academic scholarship in light of
Brumbergs qualifying introductory chapter.

        If there is such a thing as academic feminism then this book most
assuredly is a real model.  And it stands in stark contrast to the recent
book "Beauty Myth" by Naomi Wolf.  Brumberg's book is fequently mentioned
in Wolf's book, and many of the good ideas in Beauty Myth are lifted
straight out of "Fasting Girls"....but the original is so much better
in everyway.

        By now, everyone who reads newspapers and mainstream magazines
and talk shows has heard a lot about anorexia nervosa & bulimia.  Most
are aware that the disease has high mortality rates, causes undue
suffering, difficult to cure, associated with upper middle class
white females, onset is near adolescence, and somehow the disease
can be blamed on "society"  But even if you think you've heard it all,
or "know it all" this book is still highly recommended if only to see
how delicate ideas about the interplay of culture,medicine,economics
& psychology/religion can be easily transmuted into a banal and wimpy
political mush by sensationalist talk show hosts or writers.

reviewer:  Steven Seidman

           Cornell University

send comments to:  seid@ee.cornell.edu



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