Title: A hunger so wide and so deep : American women speak out on eating problems /
Authors: Thompson, Becky W.
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press,
Year: 1994
Subjects: Women psychology; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic; Minority Groups psychology; Feeding and Eating Disorders etiology; Eating disorders Etiology.; Abused women Mental health.; Minority women Mental health.; Eating disorders Etiology Social aspects.; Eating disorders Etiology Political aspects.; Women Social conditions.
Abstract: The first of its kind, A Hunger So Wide and So Deep challenges the popular notion that eating problems occur only among white, well-to-do, heterosexual women. Becky W. Thompson shows us how race, class, sexuality, and nationality can shape women's eating problems. Based on in-depth life history interviews with African-American, Latina, and lesbian women, her book chronicles the effects of racism, poverty, sexism, acculturation, and sexual abuse on women's bodies and eating patterns. A Hunger So Wide and So Deep dispels popular stereotypes of anorexia and bulimia as symptoms of vanity and underscores the risks of mislabeling what is often a way of coping with society's own disorders. By featuring the creative ways in which women have changed their unwanted eating patterns and regained trust in their bodies and appetites, Thompson offers a message of hope and empowerment that applies across race, class, and sexual preference.
Contents: 1. Making "a Way outa No Way" -- 2. Childhood Lessons; Culture, Race, Class, and Sexuality -- 3. Ashes Thrown up in the Air -- 4. Hungry and Hurting -- 5. A Thousand Hungers -- 6. In the Mourning There Is Light.