Ophira Edut

I actually enjoyed this one quite a bit…most of the books about “body issues” or female sexuality (or some combination of the two) have, thus far, been by single authors. This one was a compilation of essays by a myriad of women (different ages, sizes, ethnicities) and was a really refreshing change from “hearing” about a given type of woman’s “issue” or feelings on size/sexuality/cultural background/family expectations…it was good to hear it “from the horses mouth.” I most enjoyed The Chosen People by Tali Edut and Marked for Life: Tattoos and the Redefinition of Self (Talvi)…there were none that I strongly disliked and I found Veiled Intentions: Don’t Judge a Muslim Girl by her Covering (Hydar) to be quite interesting and enjoyable when I hadn’t expected to like it at all. Padding It: Why I Don’t need a Plus-Sized Maxi Pad made me laugh so hard I nearly peed my pants…overall, a great read for the genre! I’d recommend it just for the varied perspectives on body image and fat issues overall. A nice change of pace from my recent reading. I give it a solid B!… (mehr)

A fairly interesting collection of essays, mostly by women but a few by men, about body image and other issues. Besides standards like weight and eating disorders, the esays cover unusual topics such as:
-being a pretty young middle-eastern woman and having men get obsessed with you
-being a plus-size model
-being a female athlete before that was acceptable
-ruminiations on being a fat amputee performance artist
-being a feminist stripper
-dealing with not blossoming into a beautiful woman upon puberty like you had always expected.

I was disappointed that this book didn't have any essays about women with non-mainstream hairstyles, which would have been of particular interest to me, and more essays by men would have been nice. However, it is an interesting read as it is.… (mehr)