In this provocative book, Susan Bordo untangles the myths, ideologies, and pathologies of the modern female body. Bordo explores our tortured fascination with food, hunger, desire, and control, and its effects on women's lives.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Bordo explores women's obsessions with appearance, their struggles to control food and hunger, and the pressures brought on by a society that worships the ideal female figure.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
In dense, challenging, subtly argued philosophical essays, Bordo (Philosophy/LeMoyne College; The Flight to Objectivity, 1987- -not reviewed) offers a postmodern, poststructuralist feminist interpretation of the female body as a cultural construction in Western society, emphasizing eating disorders, reproductive issues, and the philosophical background. Many of the problems and ideas of contemporary Western society, says Bordo, derive from the ineluctable mind/body dualism of Plato, restated by Descartes. From the viewpoint of feminist theory (of which the author offers a useful history and critique), women have been identified with the body, which itself has been characterized as an alien, instinctual, threatening, passive, and false self in which the true self--the active and manly mind/soul- -is confined. In occasionally repetitive pieces--some a decade old, some revised from lectures--carrying titles like ``Are Mothers Persons?,'' ``Reading the Slender Body,'' and ``Material Girl,'' Bordo demonstrates how this identification is deployed in law, medicine, literature, art, popular culture, and, especially, advertising, which she perceptively decodes by showing how the most trivial detail (men eating hearty meals, women consuming bite-size candies) reveal cultural values and even pathologies. Following Foucault's archaeological technique, Bordo shows how the female body has migrated from nature to culture, where it can be controlled through dieting and altered through surgery--and where women are perpetually at war with it. A cerebral introduction to liberal feminist thinking that's humanized by the author's anecdotes of her own experience as a female body (e.g., confessing to the delights of making stuffed cabbage) and that demonstrates what it advocates: ``What the body does is immaterial, so long as the imagination is free.'' (Fifty- five b&w illustrations) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
Susan Bordo is known for the clarity, accessibility, and contemporary relevance of her writing. Her first book, The Flight to Objectivity, has become a classic of feminist philosophy. In 1993, increasingly aware of our culture's preoccupation with weight and body image, she published Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, a book that is still widely read and assigned in classes today. During speaking tours for that book, she encountered many young men who asked, "What about us?" The result was The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private (1999). Both books were highly praised by reviewers, with Unbearable Weight named a 1993 Notable Book by the New York Times and The Male Body featured in Mademoiselle, Elle, Vanity Fair, NPR, and MSNBC. Both books have been translated into many languages, and individual chapters, many of which are considered paradigms of lucid writing, are frequently re-printed in collections and writing textbooks. Her newest book, The Creation of Anne Boleyn: A New Look at England's Most Notorious Queen, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in April, 2013. She lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her husband, daughter, three dogs and two cats, and teaches humanities at the University of Kentucky.
How did Susan come to write a book about Anne Boleyn? Visit her website:
http://www.thecreationofanneboleyn.com/About_the_Book.html.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
48 of 51 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Unbearable Weight is a scholarly yet accessible look at the historical and current representation of women in history and in popular culture. It is an excellent look at society's objectification of the female body and the problems that can arise for women because of this objectification.
This book shines not so much as a linear collection of essays but as a reference for people who wish to study the marriage between feminism, western society, and its concentration on the female body. It has helped me to understand the media's role in my relationship with my body and in the amount of control that I have over it. "Unbearable Weight" has also been a great help in my research on this subject.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand Western Cultures objectification of women's bodies through a feminist filter.
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Unbearable Weight is brilliant. From an immensely knowledgeable feminist perspective, in engaging, jargonless (!) prose, Bordo analyzes a whole range of issues connected to the body -- weight and weight loss, exercise, media images, movies, advertising, anorexia and bulimia and much more -- in a way that makes our current social landscape make sense -- finally! This is a great book not just for academics but for anyone who wonders why women's magazines are always describing delicious food as "sinful" and why there is a cake called Death by Chocolate. Loved it!
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Susan Bordo doesn't miss a beat in this work. Every sentence has a purpose and every paragraph is filled with valuable insight into the world of contemporary female bodies. This is a practical book for the curious consumer and the student of feminism alike. Her ideas about post-modernism are challenging and abstract, but reading Bordo will most likely open up a new world for you. It did for me and this masterpiece has become one of my all-time favorites. Best Wishes...
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Although a challenging read for me at times, this book was full of "aha!" moments. I think Bordo nails it when it comes to how the issues women's size and appearance are portrayed in the media. I recommend this book highly to other feminists and those interested in media literacy.
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The one thing you want to keep in mind when purchasing this book: it's not a light read and it ain't supposed to be. If three syllable words throw you for a loop, stay away. If you feel every fat acceptance book you've read recently has insulted the depth of your intelligence, then read up! At the very least, you can't walk away from this book failing to be convinced that the world at large is at war with our bodies.
Warning: not a feel-good book! You'll be angry and start snapping at your husband, but righteous fury is where change begins.
Warning: not a feel-good book! You'll be angry and start snapping at your husband, but righteous fury is where change begins.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By La Reyna
Format:Paperback
The first time I read Ms. Bordo's book, I was so into it that I didn't get enough sleep that night. This book tells us the brainwashing media and society use to control women as well as to maintain the power elite. If the elite, media or otherwise, didn't use impossibly thin, beautiful, made up blonde women to keep them divided and in control, the whole structure would have collapsed long time ago.
Thanks Ms. Bordo for informing me about this, for I've been in darkness for many years.
Thanks Ms. Bordo for informing me about this, for I've been in darkness for many years.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Pat Hartwell
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
VERY dull reading. I can not think of seventeen more words to say about this dull book. It was not worth the money.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
An interesting read for those interested in gender and the body. I'm glad I read it but it is not in my core area of interests so not a particularly memorable read.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
highly recommended-life changing!
This is my absolute favorite book on weight. It really opens your eyes and is so worth the read. I want to give it to everyone I know! Read more
Published 16 months ago by shopaholic_online
1.0 out of 5 stars
gender roles opress female more, since she is encouraged to be a...
It is the current gender roles that contribute to women being rape out of entertainment and control, domestic violence and pressure in media for women be submissive housewives, or... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Truth sayer
3.0 out of 5 stars
I feels as though apathy is setting in. (oxymoron?)
I would say that this book is written from an academic perspective. I could see it being read in an Intro. to Femnist Theory course. That being said I did like this book. Read more
Published on April 25, 2008 by Flannery
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brutally honest, insightful, and most challenging read.
Susan Bordo's "Unbearable Weight" presents a thoroughly researched, well-balanced, detailed and illustrative account of the female postmodern "body politic. Read more
Published on July 27, 2002 by Billy Anthony Moore
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brutally honest, insightful, and most challenging read.
Susan Bordo's "Unbearable Weight" presents a thoroughly researched, well-balanced, detailed and illustrative account of the female postmodern "body politic. Read more
Published on July 27, 2002 by Billy Anthony Moore
3.0 out of 5 stars
OVERWEIGHT, INTELLECTUALLY THAT IS.
Seemingly a random collection of personally motivated opinion, quotation, and "I don't know whut all!" (Shades of Herb Schriner. Read more
Published on June 25, 2002 by "lalo"
2.0 out of 5 stars
See my review of "Twilight Zones," also by Susan Bordo
Summary:
2/3 good (on body images, eating disorders)
1/3 bad (a terrible, god-awful essay on the purported debate in feminist philosophy)
Published on February 9, 2000 by "tksc"
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
See all 100 books this book cites
100
books
cite this book:
See all 100 books citing this book
- The Obsession: Reflections on the Tyranny of Slenderness by Kim Chernin on 6 pages
- Mermaid and the Minotaur by Dorothy Dinnerstein on 4 pages
- The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture, 1830-1980 by Elaine Showalter on 4 pages
- Treating and Overcoming Anorexia Nervosa by Steven Levenkron on 4 pages
- The Hungry Self: Women, Eating and Identity by Kim Chernin on 4 pages
See all 100 books this book cites
- Body Images: Embodiment as Intercorporeality by Gail Weiss on 4 pages
- Revealing Male Bodies by Nancy Tuana on 4 pages
- The Diet Myth: Why America's Obsessions with Weight is Hazardous to Your Health by Paul Campos in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight is Hazardous to Your Health by Paul Campos in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Women and Desire: Beyond Wanting to Be Wanted by Polly Young-Eisendrath in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 100 books citing this book
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