Renee Engeln knows how women think about themselves - she's studied it. A lot. Her methodical study of our culture's obsession with women's bodies is laid out in this book that outlines how our culture portrays women and it's expectations of their appearance, how women can become "beauty sick" and, luckily, how they can begin to claw their way out of it.
It's such a readable book for such an absolutely important topic. As someone who has always been on the fringe of what our culture accepts as beautiful, I have thought about this topic a lot and even more so as I've gotten older. I appreciate all the anecdotal information presented here as well as actual empirical data, both parts felt important and well presented. I believe Dr. Engeln's assessment and I want to put this book into the hands of every woman who thinks she has to look a certain way in order to be acceptable. It is so powerful to try and let our minds go beyond the outside of our bodies, it's both terrifying and exhilarating to imagine what you could think about if you stopped thinking about how your body looks.
My only hangout was the lack of much diversity - we do get a little - and while I know that's not the focus of the book I also know that our skin color is another huge way that our way of seeing the world is affected. It is, however, a really important summary of the current literature on the subject as well as an interesting commentary. It gave me a lot to think about and I'm glad I read it.
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