Women and Dieting Culture: Inside a Commercial Weight Loss Group
American women invest millions of dollars in a quest for a body that meets our culture's standard of beauty-slenderness. Since we define a woman's sexual attractiveness as essential to her social worth, it is no wonder that "fat is a feminist issue."Commercial weight loss organizations have come under attack from feminist scholars for perpetuating the very social values that cause women to obsess about their weight. In Women and Dieting Culture, sociologist Kandi Stinson asks how these values are transmitted and how the women who join such organizations actually think about their bodies and weight. Stinson fully participated in a national, commercial weight-loss organization as a paying member. Her acute analysis and sensitive insider's account vividly illustrate the central role dieting and body image play in women's lives.As she experiences the program and interviews other members, Stinson discovers that the women's view of the causes and cures of being overweight can be placed in five distinct, though often overlapping, categories: self-help, work, religion, addiction, and feminism. She explores each category and outlines how they form interrelated patterns which, when analyzed, yield an exciting new perspective on the transmission of cultural values.