Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters

I’ve been on the receiving end of some pretty strange looks in the past few weeks. Apparently, a somewhat scrawny girl reading Courtney E. Martin’s Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body screams just one thing – eating disorder!

After a particularly depressing week, Jordan would likely argue that I do have an eating disorder, after passing up a beautiful Marciano’s pasta to chug a meal replacement when I found myself in such a hungry stupor that I couldn’t even down the things I love the most. But that’s not a common practice. Though, I am terrified to see how I do relate to various women profiled in this book.

Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters doesn’t focus only on the women who are hospitalized with eating disorders, rather she looks at the majority of us who bargain with ourselves: I will have dessert tonight, but only if I go home and spend a half-hour on the treadmill. She also looks at the group of us who like the hollow feeling of hunger in our stomachs. Both of these things I can relate to, sadly enough.

It was an interesting book, and it brought up some interesting subjects that I have not thought of. For example, the correlation between abstinence-only education and eating disorders (see my fuckity, fuckity, fuck post below) was particularly interesting. Though not overwhelmingly full of information I didn’t already know, it was a quick and enlightening read.

Plus, it was the first non-reference related book that I have checked out of the library in years! I forgot how much I love hardcover books, wrapped in flimsy plastic covers. Just the feeling of them reminds me of my childhood as a bookworm.

I’m onto Garbo Laughs, by Elizabeth Hay (who just won the Giller.) But I can’t get into it. I have 13 books on hold at the library right now, and Farley Mowat’s Bay of Spirits and Shakespeare’s Face by the beloved Stephanie Nolen should be in any day, so I have a feeling I will be abandoning Garbo shortly.