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Body Outlaws: Rewriting the Rules of Beauty and Body Image (Live Girls) | 
| Creators: Rebecca Walker, Ophira Edut
Publisher: Seal Press
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $13.10
You Save: $2.85 (18%)
New (5) Used (10) from $5.89
Avg. Customer Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 924143
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2nd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.8
Dewey Decimal Number: 155.91
ASIN: B000V4R2HE
Publication Date: December 11, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
The breezy, irreverent essays in Adios, Barbie are a welcome antidote to the narrow cultural consciousness the tiny doll has fostered for more than 40 years. While thousands of little girls worship Barbie's plasticine perfection, those who wind up dissatisfied with the message she sends--be white, be skinny, be stacked, be pretty, and then you'll be loved--can tell you how a toy skews body image in the real world. Among whites talking trash about blacks and upwardly mobile black folks, notes Erin J. Aubry, big butts are suspect--"low-class and ghettoish," the antithesis of Barbie's tightly tucked derriere. Yet on good days, Aubry applauds her ample proportions, for "unlike hair or skin, the butt is stubborn, immutable--it can't be hot-combed or straightened or bleached into submission. It does not assimilate; it never took a slave name." In "Fishnets, Feather Boas, and Fat," Nomy Lam--a 250-pound, 22-year-old disabled woman--and friends elbow their way to the front of a determinedly different club, "dancing like fiends toward revolution." Lee Damsky tells us why her mother's model of scientific prowess took a dusty third-place to big-screen images of "beauty and femininity [that] seem to offer me absolute power rivaled only by a fascist dictatorship." Because the various writers gathered together here are young, their conceits and world-views are sometimes annoyingly unexamined; by the same token, though, their energy, heckling, and bone-deep assurance make large and pleasing dents in mainstream assumptions. --Francesca Coltrera
Product Description
In more than 20 candid and humorous essays, a diverse group of women explore how they have chosen to ignore, subvert, or redefine the standard of beauty. These women break down modern culture's feminine ideal and reinvent it for themselves.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
Funny & Interesting! June 29, 2008
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!
 Great book! May 8, 2008
I was required to get this book for a women's study course for college. I'm very glad that I did. This is a compliation of many stories from different women, either going through the same thing or versions of the same thing. It would be a great book for teenage girls trying to figure themselves out.
a must read for every woman, especially teenager April 22, 2008
If you have a daughter, sister, any young "influencable" woman, get this for her please.
I am giving this book 4 stars. I wanted to give it 3.5. I don't know how to do to this or if it is even possible. Ya... April 15, 2008
I bought this book during my introductory phase of my submersion into the pool of information that is feminist theory. That being said I do recommend this book to novices wanting to learn more about why are culture conditions women to hate their bodies. I do believe that in some ways Body Outlaws serves as a crash course in feminist theory. Through the stories of other women this book connects the dots that ultimately make up the picture of our patriarchial culture. This book welcomes all readers. The author has compiled a diverse collection of stories and as a result anybody can find an contributor who they relate to. At the beginning of writing this review I considered saying that the stories in this book were hit or miss (yes, I spent quite some time contemplating what I would write in this review. Doesn't everbody?) but after mulling over it for a minute I questioned my conclusion. Just because I didn't connect with a particular story doesn't mean that another reader won't. We all have different exeperiences. Therefore we all bring something different to the table. This fact does not mean that one story is more valid than another. So in the end I do recommend this book to anyone even those that don't (yet) embrace the label of "feminist".
 An inflated attempt to exalt the female form - in all its spotty, crinkled, cellulite glory October 19, 2007
I'm not of the Oprah/self-help persuasion that this book tries to please but I sense that those who are will enjoy the myriad of essays that assure women that your body looks good, sans exfoliating scrubs, nips and tucks, laser treatments, gastric bypass, and whatever expensive fix the body police dream up. There is a hint of variety - including requisite entries by an exoticized Indian American, a disabled transsexual, and a short woman - but a disproportionate number of essays address the preoccupation with weight and few are particularly well written. Read it if you are indulging in a half-pint of Ben & Jerry's in front of the telly, your hair's twisted in knots from a bad perm, and a pound of goop is smothered over your T-zone; otherwise read a real book.
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