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The Ministry Of Thin (2013)

by Emma Woolf(Favorite Author)

3.8 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1849534128 (ISBN13: 9781849534123)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Summersdale

review 1: I really wanted to like this - but I couldn't. The author's constant personal stories about her experiences with anorexia should have made it better but they just ended up feeling shoved into each chapter and added to the disjointed feeling of the book. Woolf barely scratched the surface of an subject in her chapters, which was too bad since there was so much potential. For all the name-dropping of various feminist authors, I didn't think she really read any of their writings! Or at least understood them…rather than writing about why women go to great lengths to adhere to patriarchal beauty standards in the west - she blamed them for doing so, despite seeming to understand that women would rather not lose earning power, respect, etc when they gain weight, look older, 'ug... morely', etc. "We do this to ourselves", "they should know better", "how ridiculous they look" were some of the gems I caught in there. I'd say this read like a blog-post but the blogger Lindy West has written far better. This read like an undergrad's 'personal reflection' essay from her first women's studies class.
review 2: My only disappointment with this book is that it wasn't published fifteen years ago - if it had been, maybe I wouldn't have spent my late teens & twenties feeling constantly dissatisfied with my appearance.Woolf's writing is honest, sincere and easy to read. Page after page, I found myself identifying with the pressures put on/felt by women to look perfect. For the first time, I really took time to reflect on why we are so bothered by body image and who decides what 'perfect' is anyway.Although I'm not 100% happy with my body (after spending half of my life being ashamed of my wobbly bits it going to take me a little while to completely change my mind-set), I do feel that I can now wear a bikini on my honeymoon in a couple of weeks without feeling mortified that I'm not perfect.IMHO, this book should be read by all women and should be made compulsory reading for teenage girls - developing a healthy approach to body image early on would surely save them lots of needless anxiety as they mature. less

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