Customer Reviews

Hunger So Wide And So Deep: A Multiracial View of Women's Eating Problems

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this is a fabulous book! it does much to unpack all the myths surrounding eating disorders, namely that they are a problem of rich, white, teenage women who are just overly vain. primarily it explores eating disorders in the context of race and class and as a reaction to sexual/physical/emotional abuse. rather than pathologizing the people who suffer from eating disorders, the author considers them as logical reactions to completely illogical, destructive situations. having heard all my life that my bizarre relationship with food exists because i'm crazy (rather than because i'm perfectly sane), this book did so much to assuage my guilt and shame and removed so much of the mystery that surrounded all of it. a truly transformative book .....

Thompson's work is by no means over-generalized. Indeed, she is careful to base all of her statements on the rich, in-depth interviews she conducts with her participants. This book is especially important not only for women of color, but also for white women to read because it confirms our many-times-voiced argument that our eating problems are not about being thin: they are about surviving, about feeling scared, about wanting to disappear, but also to be recognized as "beautiful." Thompson's study is based on 18 case studies, yet her introduction provides a fabulous justification for such a small sample - how do you get a random sample of women with eating problems? There's no way to know what the POPULATION is. The new edition is subtitled: a multicultral view of women's eating problems. Pick it up! You won't regret it!

I found this book extremely generalized and narrow minded.I agree that the fact that eating disorders among minority women should be exposed and written about in order to give those women a voice and a place to turn to for answers. However, the fact remains that the vast majority of eating disorders are suffered by white, middle class young women. Instead of addressing this, calls those who suffer from eating disorders and happen to be white and middle class vain. However when minorities suffer, the disorder is socio-economically created. She also draws generalized conclusions from a study of only 32 women. I feel the book was grossly over-generalized. The only part of the book that I felt was useful, was the fact that it brings the issue of minority eating disorders to the public's attention.