Mageboka - sju steg mot å like kroppen din

by Hilde Østby

Hvorfor skal kvinners mager helst være helt flate, mens andre kroppsdeler gjerne kan være store og svulmende? Hvorfor skal selve kilden til liv, hjemmet til livmoren og fordøyelsen, være usynlig? Da journalist og idéhistoriker Hilde Østby ble 45 år, skjønte hun at hun hadde hatet magen sin i nøyaktig 30 år. Her begynte jakten på opprinnelsen til selvforakten - i nevrologi, psykologi, kulturhistorie og eget liv. Ligger svaret på gåten i hjernen vår? I klesindustrien? I menns blikk? I magasinforsider, i kvinners sosiale kontroll seg imellom? Hilde Østby leter etter løsningene, og finner overraskende svar på gåten. Denne boka er en antislankebok. Det er en hyllest til livet og kjærligheten, kanskje den kan hjelpe deg også med å like kroppen din bedre - gjennom sju steg.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Health

165 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2021

About the author

Hilde Østby (f. 1975) er idéhistoriker, forfatter, journalist og tidligere forlagsredaktør. Hun debuterte i 2013 med den kritikerroste romanen Leksikon om lengsel.

Reviews

[Rachael · Rating 2 out of 5]

It started off really promising, and then somehow it ended up at “…and that’s why you should live laugh love your way out of body dysmorphia!”

[Nickelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm, not entirely sure on this one.

This is a feminist portrait and collection of essays on Hilde Ostby's obsession with her belly and the cultural and social norms that feed into that obsession.

I was expecting way more critiquing, rather than self-help. I mean I could relate to a lot of things that she explored, but I’m not really sure if this was truly FOR me if I'm honest. I didn't really find it thought provoking or groundbreaking either. 
I did really like the writing style though.

Thanks Greystone Books for sending me a copy.

[Åshild Eriksen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Det er unektelig corny å loggføre en slik bok på sin offentlige Goodreads-profil, spesielt som en kvinne som har født barn for bare 372 dager siden :') Jeg vil likevel argumentere for at denne boka ikka hadde fortjent en så tabloid tittel som "Mageboka – sju steg mot å like kroppen din" – det er en fin essaysamling om kroppsbilde og aldring, hvor magekompleksene til forfatteren heller blir brukt som case i et studie av konsumerisme, helseindustrien og kulturelle konstruksjoner av skjønnhet. Den ble dessverre litt svakere mot slutten, men jeg anbefaler den til alle som vil lese god og fengende sakprosa om kropp✌️

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

|| MY BELLY: Exploring Why It's So Hard For Women To Love Their Bodies ||
#gifted @greystonebooks
✍🏻
Wow I couldn't put this down! Right from the first essay I was hooked in as Østby takes us through this personal, deep exploration of why women struggle to love their bodies. Drawing on her personal struggle/obsession with her belly. Using pop culture, diet culture, the patriarchy, sociology, philosophy, art/literature, and neurology to explain some of the truths that cause women's body shame, I was underlining so many passages, shaking my head along in agreeance. I found that Østby did a great job mixing personal with critique and I really enjoyed the writing style and found the translation well done. My personal experience was more resonating and justifying than revelatory but that meant a lot to me, being seen in these pages. Slide to see some of my highlights.

For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Belly is an unflinching investigation into the author’s hated of her own belly, and by extension, of women’s hatred of their bellies. It is thoughtful, scathing in regard to popular culture, and at times humorous.

I found myself relating to the author in a lot of ways and even understanding a little bit my where my own hatred of my body stems from. Did the book ultimately end in a “just ignore what society thinks of everything and aim for happiness” vibe? Yes, but I don’t think Østby was looking to cure my body dysmorphia rather than provide insight on how she is coping with hers. In fact, she pokes fun at magazines and articles that claim they can fix your issues multiple times.

Ultimately, My Belly is worth a read for women struggling with image issues- just don’t expect it to be a cure.

[Trine Østereng · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tenkte dette skulle vere ein slags feministisk samfunnskritikk, men synst det var meir tradisjonell sjølvhjelpslitteratur. Litt for lettvint argumentasjon til å funke som eit oppgjer. Og med utgangspunkt i forfattarens sterke hat mot eigen mage som raud tråd, eit hat som blir gjentatt og gjentatt, funka boka litt mot si eiga hensikt. Eg var kanskje utanfor målgruppa, som ikkje gjekk til boka med forakt mot eigen mage, så endte kanskje opp med å bli meir sjølvkritisk etter å ha lest. Så oppsummert: blei meir irritert enn engasjert. Ikkje verdt tidsbruken 🙂

[solfri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ein herleg, liten bok!
"Bøkene, klærne, kursene, tv-programmene, klesprodusentene - hele veien står det mennesker som forsøker å tjene penger på min dårlige selvtillit. Føkk hele gjengen!" 🤌🏼

[Julie Chamaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a personal exploration of the author’s relationship with body image, in particular her belly. It will resonate with many women, because so few of us are able to accept the self-perceived imperfections of our bodies, let alone love our bodies. The author explores how this is a common dissatisfaction which even affects women who are not slavishly following impossible fashion trends, vacuous influencers or impossible exercise regimes. Areas such as dieting, eating disorders and anxiety are explored - and the absolute loathing the author reserves for her belly fat is probably something with which many will identify. In the hands of this author it is treated seriously but with a small measure of humour too.

A very slim offering but most interesting.

[analía · Rating 2 out of 5]

for a book that “explores why it’s so hard for women to love their bodies”, starting off describing women as “stick-thin” and name-dropping real celebrity names following a description of their appearance (or describing them as ordinary??) was odd to me and really put me off

[Ida · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fint skrevet, men kanskje ikke noe man ikke har hørt før.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

it started out promising (i.e. actually about societal pressures to be a certain shape and size) but quickly devolved into “here’s why you’re overweight” and “don’t take pills for depression, just enjoy your life”

[Vilde Bratland Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Positivt med et lite fuck you til alt og alle som får oss til å skamme oss over kroppen. Men jeg synes ikke det kommer frem noe nytt i denne boken. Sitter litt igjen med en følelse av å ha «lest det før.» Liker imidlertid skrivestilen til Østby, og gleder meg allerede til hennes neste bok.

[Mayra Carrion · Rating 5 out of 5]

the best book I’ve read in a really long time.

[Rennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If my belly hate was a person, she'd be old enough to have completed a lengthy education and given me grandchildren."

As a lifelong hater of and obsessive about my belly, I loved this. The first chapter was 100 stars, it captured so much of exactly how I feel about this body part and how hating it has hijacked my brain too. Her thoughts about how much mental energy and time has been dedicated to her belly resonated with me, I've absolutely had the same. If you're a similar type you'll find a lot to commiserate with here.

"...if I ever seem to have forgotten my belly, even for an instant, that's an illusion: I'm always thinking about it."

The translation is a bit rough in spots, and at least once had a grammar error, so that's unfortunate because I really love nonfiction in translation. I also hesitated a bit in her criticism of fasting in a chapter about diets, because although I agree that dieting as a concept doesn't work, there is a lot of science behind the benefits of fasting. Yes, intermittent fasting of various stripes is super trendy now, but that doesn't mean it should all be written off as a fad. (Read The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss for an outstanding explanation of how weight loss and gain works, and The Oldest Cure in the World: Adventures in the Art and Science of Fasting for the physiology of what happens to the body in a fasted state, such as cell repair, which can also benefit weight loss and overall health).

But these things aside, this was the best explanation of the myriad psychological and social factors that affect women from early childhood on and contribute to our hatred of our bodies. In well under 200 pages, there's no way it can go too in-depth, so a lot of the factors and topics are just introduced, but she does cite a lot of sources and give the most important points behind these for such a short book. In all fairness, none of these were new to me but I read a lot in this area already. And the emphasis of considering them all together, especially woven into what she reveals of her personal story, was so worthwhile.

The ending clinched it for me – although again, there's nothing surprising here: her message is to love yourself because we're tiny things in a vast world and your body fat just does not matter in the scheme of things, and life goes quick and you'd do better to focus on the things and people you love instead of what you hate about yourself. I get it, we all get it, but as she also emphasizes, it's the repetition of thoughts and information that affect us so strongly, so hearing it again certainly doesn't hurt.

But then she relates the Derek Walcott poem she stumbles across while buying a loaf of sourdough bread and it just hit me in the feels. Such a beautiful and deeply resonant way to wrap this up. I loved it! I cried a little. It meant so much.

This book didn't heal all of my issues with my own body – as a fellow former disordered eater I'm also never going to assume anything in this process happens quickly. But it was a lovely, warm, heartfelt step in feeling a little better and a lot of helpful thoughts and psychology to help along the way.

For want of other outlets for our lust and sin, anger and joy, the body and food become the tiny areas where we do have control. And if the only thing a woman has power over in life is what she puts in her mouth, there's a tiny scrap of freedom to be had from dieting, and from monitoring and comparing other women's food intake with our own. Or perhaps just living through men or striving for affirmation from them.

[Sasha G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

My belly

Thank you to Greystone Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This book is a collection of personal views and experiences mixed with scientific data about the intricacies of female bodies. The author’s feelings come across as raw and truthful. I appreciate the way she used various vivid metaphors and similes to describe the hatred towards her belly, which is the main focus of the book.

The conversational writing style is quite engaging. I am sure the original text reads much better as the translation was a bit rough in some places and the sentences could have had a better flow. Yet, it did not impact my reading experience too much.

Even though I wasn’t born during the 90s, I’m well aware of the modelling and beauty trends of the time. Most of the models on the catwalk were slim and fit. Yet, I did not understand why the author started describing them as having 'boyish hips' and 'no boobs' and claiming they were probably underweight. The author is trying to fight against those who comment on other people's bodies, yet openly criticises the model's bodies. I feel like the book would have had a stronger impact if the author stuck to her own experiences and the ways she overcame (or didn’t) her struggles.

Plus, some of the descriptions of her own body were quite negative. For instance, here is how the author talks about her own body in the book - “..as long as no one sees that damn bulky, gross, absurd belly of mine.” I’m afraid hearing the author talk about herself in this way can spread such ideas to other women who might already feel insecure and picked up this book to get some positive talk or new ideas on how to love their bodies. I expected this book to be a story of falling back in love with your body and its perfect imperfections.

Many ideas mentioned in the book I resonated with. For instance, experiencing men commenting on your appearance or being indirectly influenced by the media and societal beauty standards. However, whilst the book described these problems quite well, it did not make me change my opinion on anything nor did it provide revolutionary ideas.

[Tera]

Ostby has compiled a personal narrative in a few essays re: her belly. She looks at the possible causes for her hatred, including how children are spoken to from when they are young about their bodies and the disparity between genders; and she discusses how this hatred of her belly manifests. She includes scientific research and statistics to round her personal essays. I, like the author, dislike my belly and question how it looks every single day. I found it helped to reaffirm ideas about how to stop loathing my belly, but this is going to be a hard process.

[Micha · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

This wasn’t bad. But it was not groundbreaking. Nothing i read was really new. It was short thank goodness. I would have given it a 3 but there was a few lines in the beginning about how the author thought it was odd she spent so much time thinking about her stomach because she is more traditionally intelligent. I didn’t like how she said that and what it implied. She talked about how she reads books, listens to classical music, and wins awards, why is she spending so much time thinking about her looks?

[Maren Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 - wish i liked this more. def a topic i would have liked to read about and get new insights but this just felt kinda dumb and preachy, also stuff i talked about with my therapist when i was like 10. there were only some select parts (maybe 3 paragraphs total in whole book) that felt like new valuable thinking or offered me something to think about. maybe that’s harsh and ive just spent too much time thinking about this topic already. hmm

[Hannah Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a piece of non-fiction exploring all the reasons we care about weight and body image and the issues behind this I enjoyed it. However if you’re going in to it expecting it to be a self-help book (like I thought) you are wrong. It is easy to say look at the bigger picture and focus not on your body but that is easier said than done.

[Jorid Angell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Savnet litt mer fra ulike kulturer ,men anbefaler den så absolutt

[Louise · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book really made me feel worse about my body and belly.

[Siriann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liker konseptet

[Anne Lise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilde Østby leverer igjen. Som alltid velskrevet, engasjerende, nært og personlig og samtidig informativt.

[Kelly Lindamood · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard an interview with the author of this book and expected so much more..... meh, not a lot new here.

[Lam Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. Such a beautiful, funny, and good read. It is such a complicated topic and I felt like this book helped me recognize some harsh patterns in my thought process about myself.

[A Poste · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this little book.

[Abrah J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book felt more of several long blog entries than a book.

However, I felt a kinship with the author as I share her shame and loathing when it comes to my belly.

[Pernia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading this - a combination reflection and research. How important it is to read (and reread) female authors.

[Mik Lizuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the context and a lot of the quotes regarding a mother and daughter relationship but it was a hard read.

[Nora Løkenhagen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vil nesten våge å påstå at jeg fikk litt økt livsglede av denne, og lærte mye jeg ikke visste fra før