Confessing excess : women and the politics of body reduction
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Confessing excess : women and the politics of body reduction
(SUNY series in gender and society / Cornelia Butler Flora, editor)
State University of New York Press, c1990
- : pbk
Available at 4 libraries
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-196) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Looking at the discourse on female weight reduction in American culture, Confessing Excess analyzes contemporary dieting and the weight loss literature by taking up the themes of confession and surveillance. Spitzack argues that dieting is characterized by confession (of "excess") which women internalize and which necessitates ongoing surveillance or monitoring of the body. Informal conversations and in-depth interviews also juxtapose women's everyday dieting experiences with the discourse of dieting texts. By evaluating the cultural construction of women in this manner, the author illuminates the power strategies that offer self-acceptance at the price of self-condemnation.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Transgressions and Cures
Chapter 1 Curative Voices: Anti-Diets and Expects
Chapter 2 The Aesthetics of Women's Health: "Watching Yourself Until You're Sixty-Five"
Chapter 3 Speaking Transgressions: "Making a Believer of Me"
Part II: Others in Relation to Bodies
Chapter 4 Family Relationships: "Mother Criticizes, Father Compliments"
Chapter 5 Women's Friendships: "Going Down to the Depths of You"
Chapter 6 Romantic Relationships: "Getting Him to See Me"
Part III: Wisdom from the Margins
Chapter 7 Seeing the Mythology of Resolution: "I Could Write a Book About This"
Chapter 8 Political Solutions: "Wait a Minute, This is Crazy"
Appendix
Notes
References
Index
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