Body Shots: Hollywood and the Culture of Eating Disorders
"Body Shotsis a wake-up call to girls and women everywhere. Fox-Kales' savvy analysis of filmic and other media representations of the female body in contemporary culture is riveting and utterly persuasive. Every woman, whether suffering from a disordered body image or not, will be compelled to reexamine the way she views her own body and her satisfaction or dissatisfaction with it in the light of this powerful and life-changing book." --Madelon Sprengnether, author ofCrying at the Movies: A Film Memoir"In this essential book, Emily Fox-Kales takes on our `diet culture run amok' and the way movies both reflect and reinforce America's unhealthy and unethical ideas about weight. She shows how, in film after film, teenage girls, her patients for many years, fall under the spell of pencil-thin celebrities and makeover movies. The consequences are disastrous. Fox-Kales' book spans psychology, cinema theory, and cultural studies. She has written a must read for anyone concerned with teenagers; psychologists, parents, or just concerned citizens." --Norman N. Holland, author ofMeeting Movies"Body Shotsis an engaging and fascinating exploration of the connection between Hollywood's dream-factory and our eating disordered culture that is derived from Emily Fox-Kales' vast experience and expertise in the treatment of eating disorders." --James Hudson, MD, ScD, McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School"Emily Fox-Kales'Body Shotsputs into perspective the impact of the film industry on how society defines the concept of beauty. It is a great resource to help people understand how screen and media images impact our drive for the `perfect body'." --Beth Mayer,CEO, Multi-service Eating Disorders Association"With rising rates of obesity, we tend to overlook an equally important weight crisis--the fear of fat that can lead to anorexia, bulimia, bingeing, and other eating disorders. Fox-Kales applies her expertise as a clinical psychologist specializing in disordered eating to diagnose the celebrity culture's influence on normalizing an unhealthy ideal body standard. Her analysis is a must-read--well-researched, insightful, and engaging, filled with teachable moments to help deconstruct messages that encourage us to diet and exercise, even undergo plastic surgery, to attain the distorted body image reflected in Hollywood movies."  --Bobbie Eisenstock, Co-Director, The Body Media Image (BMI) Project, California State University, Northridge