Customer Reviews

The Obsession: Reflections on the Tyranny of Slenderness

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I read The Obsession back in 1980, when it first appeared. I was struggling with a severe eating disorder, and thought my problem had to do with will power and discipline. The Obsession was one of three books I read that year that literally turned my life around: the other two were Feeding the Hungry Heart, by Geneen Roth, and Fat is a Feminist Issue, by Susie Orbach. Each gave me a different, and crucial, perspective on my own struggles. Kim Chernin's book reminded me that the craze for skinniness is a very recent development in Western culture; that it has everything to do with the power dynamics of our society, and nothing to do with whether we're good or bad people based on our size; and that the most powerful female figures in history have been amply endowed, if not (by modern standards) downright fat. After reading this book, I felt like a warrior goddess for weeks. It helped me let go of a lot of self-hatred and confusion about my body. Kim Chernin is also an exquisite writer - there were passages that literally took my breath away. I give this book my highest recommendation for any woman struggling with her body image, or any reader wanting to understand women's minds at a deeper level.

This thoughtful, powerful, and well-researched study of women`s preoccupation with food and weight is one of the best feminist reads ever. I began the book with expectations of simply enjoying a valid cultural history of food and eating. Soon, however, I could`nt put it down, as I recognized myself and many of my friends and relatives in Chernin`s case histories and literary examples. She captures perfectly the feelings of guilt and low self-esteem that ensue when you don`t stick to a society-prescribed diet, even though that diet may be harming you physically and emotionally. She mentions at length the uneasiness felt by women who are miraculously happy with their bodies, because a culture and media obsessed with willowy, thin figures subtly pressure them to feel uneasy. The structure of the book is set up as a neat balance between real-life studies of anorexia and other weight disorders juxtaposed with cultural and literary views on women and their appetites and figures. The section on Margaret Atwood`s novel "The Edible Woman" and its treatment of the anorexic personality is just one instance where Chernin`s insights amaze you. At the book`s fascinating conclusion, I felt like cheering. It makes one feel proud to be a woman, no matter what size you wear or which body part you dislike. I`m not going to say that it turned my entire self-image around, but it definitely helped set me on a path of self- discovery and liking my physical body beter. That`s why I hope today`s young women will find and read it, too. Oh, and the poem comparing designer jeans to girdles is priceless!

I read this book a while ago and was very moved and still am by its candidness. I found that it will resonate with anyone who has experienced an eating disorder, and it will enlighten someone who is naive to the hell that underlies such an eating disorder. After reading this remarkable volume, one cannot help but realise that eating disorders are not at all about food and that overcoming one involves much more than changing one's eating habits. The reader will realise that beating such a disorder is no easy feat. It can be the hardest task someone will ever complete.

This book was such a help to me in my cross over between teen to adult and the self image I had of myself. It opened my eyes to the fact that if you are not a 12 year old girl you won't look like one. Women are meant to have curves. I highly recommend for young girls so they don't buy into the onslaught of images showing anorexia as beauty.

Being neither a woman nor someone who has had any eating disorders, I hesitate to be too harsh about this piece. I would guess that "The Obsession" will (and, judging from the other reviews, does) serve as a device of comfort for some of those who are members of the aforesaid categories.
However, as someone who chose the book because of an interest in eating disorders--friends have experienced them--I was disappointed by this work.
Potential readers should be forewarned that most of the "analysis" in the work is psychoanalytic: that is, virtually useless. A quote from page 166 my 1981 paperback edition summarizes the problem: "But when we know of the obsession that follows, we shall be inclined to see in this cluster of disparate facts the very pattern which underlies the eventual development of obsession." That is, the author is using throughout the book post hoc reasoning, fitting information to theory. The least thought is required to see that the principal conclusion reached here (that social oppression of women leads to eating disorders) is well supported by the evidence in the book, provided the conclusion is known before the supporting data are selected. Likewise, the least thought is required to realize that, because no speculation is offered as to why some women do _not_ develop eating disorders, the argument of the book is naught but rationalization.
Another minor flaw--perhaps this has been rectified in subsequent editions--is that the prose is boring.
Again, I mean not to deny that the volume might be a comfort to some; to most, however, it will not be worth the price. I paid the equivalent of about 75 cents for it and regret it.