Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: How the Quest for Perfection is Harming Young Women (Paperback)

~ Courtney E. Martin (Author)
Key Phrases: spiritual hunger, corporate rap, weight preoccupation, Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, Feminism's Unintended Legacy (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A long overdue takedown of our culture’s unhealthy obsession with physical appearances—and what it’s doing to our kids.”
—Arianna Huffington

“Smart and spirited…thought-provoking reading.”
—New York Times

“An engaging and heartbreaking account of the tragic circumstances girls and women find themselves in today as they struggle to find a body they can feel secure with.”
—Susie Orbach, author of Fat Is a Feminist Issue

“Fresh analysis…will bring insight to a whole new group of teenagers and young women.”
—Naomi Wolf

“Heartbreaking…Martin explores the forces that drive young women to sacrifice themselves on the altar of perfection.”
—Publishers Weekly

Product Description

This eye-opening look at twenty-first century culture and its impact on women reveals how food and weight obsession, driven in no small part by images of celebrities openly wasting away, threatens a new generation of girls as the feminist exhortation that “you can do anything” is twisted into “you must do everything.” It also inspires readers to consider what wonderful things might happen if the madness stopped once and for all.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade; Reprint edition (September 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425223361
• ISBN-13: 978-0425223369
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #462,171 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very important book, I loved it., February 17, 2009

By	Heather O'Roark "Heatherlee" (Round Lake, Il USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Martin brings an intelligent, spot-on, and completely fresh analysis to the issues of eating disorders/disordered eating, body image, and self-esteem in young women. She seamlessly weaves true stories of women and girls she personally knows and/or met and interviewed for the purpose of writing the book with facts, statistics, and quotes from tons of other sources. Her research is meticulous, and the personal stories are interesting and compelling. Martin's writing is also fantastic. I tore through this nonfiction book faster than I can read a lot of fiction - her writing flowed so well and the content was incredibly fascinating.

Also, if you read other reviews of the book, not everyone agrees with me about how fantastic it is. So, yeah, the book resonated with me and with my personal experiences. A lot. I do not have an eating disorder, but I have plenty of experience with disordered eating, feeling like crap about oneself, comparing oneself to others constantly, etc. Personally and otherwise. So I get it. I get what the book is saying and I truly related to the stories within it. That is most likely a large part of why I liked it so much. But regardless of your personal experiences, I believe Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters is a terrific read.

I absolutely, 100% cannot recommend this book enough. If you are female, and/or if you have a daughter, Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters is a MUST-read. Truly. This was one of the best non-fiction books I've read in a long time.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An okay book about eating disorders, not the best., February 12, 2009

By	Suze - See all my reviews

I found the author's insights to be a little vacuous. Her angle (for a large portion of the book) is that there haven't been many books about eating disorders in 'our generation.' That is, most of the other books (autobiographical or otherwise) aren't up to date.

I can agree with that, but she falls short of saying much else that hasn't already been said (for example, "Gaining: the Truth About Life After Eating Disorders" has a lot of the same study data, and gives pretty similar personal accounts).

She references contemporary problems, cites works like "Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture," (a book I would recommend), but doesn't go much further than that.
My overall impression of "Perfect Girls" was just, 'hey, I'm a 20-something, I'm aware there are cultural, social, psychological and physiological issues related to the prevalence of eating disorders, and here's some data from other people that may or may not be relevant.' I don't think this is a badly written book, or that it doesn't provide solid information about eating disorders, but the only NEW thing it has to offer is it's publishing date.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique take on the subject, December 21, 2008

By	Nikki (NY, USA) - See all my reviews

This book feels really personal, as though you're having an intimate conversation. The research is also top notch. It's a great book to read if you are a woman and have ever been insecure about your body, especially if you are under 30. While the author and I would have run in different social circles in school, I really identified with the issues facing young women today.