The Obsession: Reflections on the Tyranny of Slenderness – A Critical Analysis of Why Women Embrace Thinness and Men Encourage It

by Kim Chernin

The Obsession is a deeply committed and beautifully written analysis of our society's increasing demand that women be thin. It offers a careful, thought provoking discussion of the reasons men have encouraged this obsession and women have embraced it. It is a book about women's efforts to become thin rather than to accept the natural dimensions of their bodies--a book about the meaning of food and its rejection.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Psychology, Womens, Food, Mental Illness, Fat

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Kim Chernin (born May 7, 1940, Bronx, New York) is an American fiction and nonfiction writer, feminist, poet, and memoirist. She has published fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the first books I read that offered a thoughtful analysis of our culture's obsession with thinness. It was published in 1981, well before The Beauty Myth and other titles sparked a national discussion about women's body image issues. Chernin herself suffered from disordered eating, and she weaves her own experiences into the book with incredibly powerful descriptions that will surely strike a nerve with anyone who has dealt with eating disorders. As I'm re-reading it, I'm knocked over by how tragically relevant Chernin's observations are today, nearly thirty years later. She watches two young girls weighing themselves at the local tennis club:

"The taller one steps up, glances at herself in the mirror, looks down at the scale. She sighs, shakes her head. I see at once that she is imitating someone. The sigh, the headshake are theatrical, beyond her years. And so, too, is the little drama enacting itself in front of me. The other girl leans forward, eager to see for herself the troubling message imprinted upon the scale. But the older girl throws her hand over the secret. It is not to be revealed. And now the younger one, accepting this, steps up to confront the ultimate judgment. 'Oh, God,' she says, this growing girl. 'Oh, God,' with only a shade of imitation in her voice: 'Would you believe it? I've gained five pounds.'"

Today those girls might have their own daughters. Chernin broke ground by raising the point that there is something wrong, something sick about this cycle of body hatred being passed from mothers to children. Unfortunately, that same scene is now being played by a new generation of girls. There is still much work to be done.

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating look at why women are obsessed with losing weight...the origins of world hatred of women's bodies. It is a frightening book that hits home to any woman who diets for whatever reason she might give. I bought this book in 1982 and it is filled with passages underlined. I can't remember how many times I have reread it but here we are in 2016 and nothing has changed for women and the cult of the boyish figure. It is so sad and illuminating and should be taught in modified form to children in early grades to try to change how people learn to view the female form in unhealthy ways.

[Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd like to give this book 2.5 stars, really. A lot of it was basic Fat Acceptance 101 (which I aced many years ago) and a lot of it seemed based on the idea that a good dose of feminism would cure most eating disorders... which I'm not sure I agree with. I'm also not sure that I agree with the idea that much male hostility towards women is actually based in a fear of women and their power to create life.

Ideas I liked or at least found intriguing:

-permission to eat/enjoy food is related to allowing oneself to enjoy "the sensual aspects of the self"(p. 15)
-"Fat people [...] often think of themselves solely in terms of the 'neck up.' Their bodes are disowned, alienated, foreign, perhaps stubbornly present but not truly a part of the real self."(p.53)
-"For two thousand years or more man has been subjected to a systematic effort to transform him into an ascetic animal. He remains a pleasure-seeking animal."(p. 56)
-Talking about conceptions of heaven and hell: "[W]e are unable to imagine eternity without a body; unable to imagine this body without its vulnerability or to conceive of this body without imagining the suffering it makes for us."(p.61)
-"I'm a mountain of a woman, he thinks? Well, if he's so much of a man, let him climb me."(p. 78)
-Various cited studies talking about little boys with vagina envy (p. 116-17)
-Parents passing on their own "ambivalence about passion, sensuality, and romance" to their children (p. 167)

[Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Books that take a psychoanalytic approach are always somewhat of a fever dream, and this one is no exception. Often incomprehensible, a wild mix of metaphors and parables, this was much harder to follow than I had hoped. Chernin had been lauded by several academics and upon reading, I see why, though not for the reasons academics would give. I would argue that academics like this book so much precisely because it borders on incomprehensible. Personally I prefer readable books with clear points (in nonfiction; for fiction, all bets are off). The mid-section of the book is the most incomprehensible.

Overall this book has its moments, a few quotable lines, and that's it. I'm not a fan of psychoanalytic approaches to begin with and this book served as a tidy reminder of that fact. Unlikely to read it again.

[Margaret Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am back at Intuitive eating and people keep recommending I read "Health at every Size". I have been trying to remember the title of this book - thank you goodreads! Google could not help. It was a life changer in the 80's no idea if it has held up.

[Gabriella Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is THE book. The one where I first understood that the thoughts I harbored about my body weren't so strange. That I wasn't alone. That other people were inflicted with fear, doubts and pure loathing of their own skin. There are passages from this book, which I first read nearly 30 years ago, that I carry with me on the daily and always will. It is a raw depiction of the mind when engulfed with an eating disorder. One that was far ahead of its time--similar to Birch's Golden Cage-- when published. If you want some real insight into eating disorders, not clinical just real, then you should take the time to read this book.

[Jules Simone · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone socialized female.

[Miss Scarlett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read of a very intriguing theory about women's bodies.

[Janet Holt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 5

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important for its time. The author showed courage in writing this memoir when she did.

[victoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of outdated psychoanalysis, but still had some really interested points. I never realized how a fear of aging and maturity (womanhood) can underlie anorexia

[Aaron Hawley · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a book published in the early 1980s, it has some devestating conclusions about eating disorders. And one can only assume the descriptions of oppression have only worsened.

Provides strong ammunition that smashing annorexia and bulimia will require an entire society's reawekening about gender power and cultural attitudes. Support groups and therapy offer important treatment to the disease, but it needs to be cured.

Witch burning, Victorian purity, sexual slavery, genital mutilation, domestic violence, foot binding. The struggle to be thin is the latest "dirty little secret" of modern culture.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly relevant for a book published over 30 years ago, this book explores the cultural ideal of slenderness in women's bodies. The author weaves her own stories of her own eating disorders with research and the theory that the imposition of a slenderness ideal is a reaction to the increasing power of women in society. I found the theorizing about the relationship of an infant self to a mother's body rather hard to believe, but perhaps that's just because I'm not well enough versed in psychological theories. I specially enjoyed reading about Ellen West, and a poem by Adrienne Rich about Ms. West. I had never heard her tragic story, but would like to read more.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I knew I should bail when I read this: "This is a poignant idea. The high blood pressure and heart attacks from which our bodies suffer when we are fat may be the result of the shame we feel about our large bodies and may reflect the social condemnation to which these large bodies open us, rather than the inherent, physical dangers of being fat." Poignant? No. Stupid? Yes. Self-justifying claptrap. For one thing, there are many people perceived as "fat" that are happy and healthy, just larger. They aren't paragons of misery like everyone in this book. Be fat or don't be fat. If you choose to be fat, and it makes you unhappy, please don't but the blame on others. It's your own fault.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this in the dollar bin at a used book store and it caught my eye. Interesting theories about how both women and men critic the female form and why. The last couple chapters where less interesting than the first 2/3s of the book.

[Oyceter · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://oyceter.livejournal.com/259359...

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing so far! I read her book "My Life as a Boy" years ago and loved it. I'm more interested in the themes discussed in this book now, however.

[Joan]

Even though written some 30 years ago, this book makes some very important observations on the subject of modern women's obsession with being thin.

[Debbie Mortimer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Powerful book about society's increasing demand on women to be thin. Discusses reasons why men have encouraged this obsession. A book about women's efforts to become thin