Customer Reviews

Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women and Children

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While I really enjoyed the book, I felt it concetrated may too much on issues of thinness and weight. I think the author did a good job of looking at a variety of studies and including both psychological and sociological studies; however, I feel that body image satisfaction and dissatisfaction goes way beyond just looking at body shape. If you're looking to read about body image outside of the 'weight debate' look elsewhere.

I am a lay reader. I read few research reviews, but I found this book to be clear and insightful.

The body of studies reviewed seems comprehensive, and the author strikes me as being very fair and responsible in the way she reviews the research. She points out particularly interesting findings as well as places where more research would be helpful. From page 111: "An interesting difference between interviews with men and with women is that adult men tended to see media images as realistic goals. There was a general feeling that they could look like the media images if they wanted to, but that they did not care enough about the way they looked to spend time weight training." Her own voice in the book is not overbearing, and when she does provide her opinion, it is very insightful. She also does a nice job of reporting on literature (not only on studies). The author's own research and interviews are helpful and fill in areas where information may have otherwise gone missing. She provides helpful information about men and body image. She discusses solutions for body dissatisfaction, though not in the same depth as other subjects. I found this book left me with a different and less biased view about bodies and body satisfaction-an impact I wasn't expecting.