The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls

by Joan Jacobs Brumberg

"Timely and sympathetic . . . a work of impassioned advocacy."         --PeopleA hundred years ago, women were lacing themselves into corsets and teaching their daughters to do the same. The ideal of the day, however, was inner a focus on good deeds and a pure heart. Today American women have more social choices and personal freedom than ever before. But fifty-three percent of our girls are dissatisfied with their bodies by the age of thirteen, and many begin a pattern of weight obsession and dieting as early as eight or nine. Why?In The Body Project, historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg answers this question, drawing on diary excerpts and media images from 1830 to the present. Tracing girls' attitudes toward topics ranging from breast size and menstruation to hair, clothing, and cosmetics, she exposes the shift from the Victorian concern with inner beauty to our modern focus on outward appearance--in particular, the desire to be model-thin and sexy. Compassionate, insightful, and gracefully written, The Body Project explores the gains and losses adolescent girls have inherited since they shed the corset and the ideal of virginity for a new world of sexual freedom and consumerism--a world in which the body is their primary project."Joan Brumberg's book offers us an insightful and entertaining history behind the destructive mantra of the '90s--'I hate my body!'" --Katie CouricFrom the Trade Paperback edition.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, History, Sociology, Gender Studies, Psychology, Womens Studies

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 19, 1997

About the author

Joan Jacobs Brumberg is a Professor Emerita of Cornell University, where she has been teaching history, human development and gender studies since 1979. Brumberg lectures and writes about the experiences of adolescents throughout history until the present day.

In the subject area of Gender Studies, she has written both about boys and violence, and girls and body image.

Joan lectures widely on all of her books and the social issues they cover. She is represented by Jodi Solomon Agency in Boston.

Reviews

[Eli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though this book was definitely interesting, I found it rather troubling in the end-- and not for the usual reasons. Brumberg came off in the final chapters as not being very sex-positive ("the emergence of a right to sexual expression can be as problematic as the right to smoke cigarettes" [142]), which is fine, but it was then that I started noticing some specious citations. For example, on page 203 of the pictured edition, Brumberg remarks parenthetically at the close of a paragraph that "in 1994, one third of African-American males between eighteen and thirty were behind bars". When I turned to the endnote immediately following this, there was, instead of a citation for this alarming statistic, some further references for her claims (half a paragraph earlier) that Black and Latina women tended to enter puberty (a few months) earlier than White girls. I still haven't figured out where she found that particular statistic.

I was also concious while reading that these were anecdotes from not only "middle-class" girls, as she often reminded us, but explictly of White middle-class girls. It's fine if that's what you want to write about, but I felt that Brumberg sometimes forgot that White women and girls and women and girls of colour often have radically different experiences in America, especially going back to the Victorian era she often refers back to, neglecting that the girls and women recently released from slavery around this time may have had slightly different experiences than, say, Lou Henry Hoover. As I say, it's fine to focus on the experiences of White women and girls, but when she begins comparing the experiences of White women and women of colour in the final chapter, women of colour receive a rather unsympathetic portrayal. I can't help but feel that diaries of Black women from even the 1950s would help to shed a humanising light on the statistics Brumberg presents.

I was also troubled by the way in which she equated same-sex attraction with sexual sadomasochism (132).

I was initially impressed by the obsessive index, but the endnotes and lack of proper citations really got to me. I suppose that I expected a more academic book, though it serves me right for picking one with a pierced teenage navel on the cover. In general, the last paragraph or so of sections, and particularly of chapters, was interesting from a theoretical standpoint.

This book jumped around too much for me. Occasionally personal, even a little self-indulgent; a serious academic thesis; an economic project; a historiographical survey-- it was rather uneven and just didn't quite get there for me.This book contained interesting anecdotes, but it also really got my back up in the end.

[Siobhan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Intended to reveal the history behind the struggles of adolescent girls in terms of body image and self-identity. Instead, it is a micrcosm of exactly what is wrong in this field of research-it focuses solely on white, middle-to-upper class young women, "to simplify things". Just another exmaple of a researcher who refuses to get dirty-failing to address issues of race and socioeconomic status and their entaglemant with body image and self-identity.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars. Not entirely a waste of time, but way more disappointing than I thought. I really wanted to love this book, but just couldn't get there. The concept was a good one: Providing historical information from adolescent girls' diaries/journals to discuss the history of our changing body consciousness. However, the diaries often seemed forgotten, and that was disappointing. In addition, I felt that Brumberg added a bit too much of her own opinion/judgments throughout the text, which took me out of it.

A lot of her opinions I felt were forced, as though she was very much trying to conform the history to her viewpoint, often times unsuccessfully. For example, I think it is enough to say that when flapper dresses came into fashion, and showed women's legs, legs then became the "in" thing to work on/worry about. From a historical perspective, that is certainly a good point to make. However, flapper dresses are very loose and rectangular, and frankly much more comfortable and unrestrained than the fashions women had been wearing previously. One (okay, "I") could make the argument that by placing less emphasis on the most feminine of a woman's body (boobies and long hair), that style was still a leap forward. I felt that she didn't even acknowledge that, or did in a very vague fashion, and instead focused on, "See? ANOTHER thing to worry about!" She even does it when athleticism came into fashion in the late 70s through the 80s, because of course, it was "another thing for women to obsess over." There is honestly nothing beneficial in the latest fashion to have toned, athletic bodies? Come on. Now you're reaching.

She also emphasizes the influence of American commercialism on women's body awareness. Again, a fair point, but she really tries to drive it home with tampons and pads, and seems to think the only reason we use them is because of commercialism. I can't think of a woman on this earth who wouldn't gladly exchange boiling rags all the time with something a thousand times easier. She tries to align it with America's contemporary and emerging emphasis on hygiene, but again, I'd argue that even non-industrial, non-commercialist societies have their own ideas of women "on the rag," as it were, and sometimes separate them from the rest of the society, or at the very least have SOME sort of routine or tradition that has themes of hygiene. It isn't really new or extraordinary that there is an idea of hygiene surrounding bleeding every month; it's just that our country dealt with it in the means that we have. Whether that's right or wrong is a separate issue, but one that isn't addressed.

Lastly, and this occurred at the end of the book and made me thoroughly fed up, was her discussion of homosexuality amongst women. This may be how she wrote about it, but it came off through her wording as if she felt this was somehow a result of exposure and women "became" or "chose to be" gay all of a sudden due to the changing times. It seemed like an incredibly backward and conservative discussion - not that she came off as though she hated gay people, but it DID come off as something she knew little about. She actually states at one point that in the late 70s, women began to feel that being gay "was an option." Um, no. Women (and men) don't just suddenly see it as an "option." I think better wording would be that they felt that they were more free to express attraction to the same sex, which is different. Maybe it's a small point to some people, but she treats it almost as if it's some trend, along with flapper dresses and "athletic" bodies, and it really, really bothered me.

That, along with basing her entire historical perspective of people getting piercings around it being trendy among gay people in San Francisco and New York, and particularly emphasizes how it went along with sexual practices. Frankly, I don't even really think that that's true. It sort of rings of something on Snopes, but hey maybe I'm wrong. Regardless, wherever a trend started, I highly, highly doubt that the bajillion girls I knew in high school getting belly button, nose, eyebrow, and cartilage piercings were doing it to express some intense sexual practice. It was disappointing that she didn't discuss it in how it was currently being expressed - as a complete rejection of/rebellion to the core of what we consider feminine in this country. It seems a completely obvious point, but she boiled it down to, "See? Women are more sexualized! PIERCINGS!"

That was a rant. Overall, there are some interesting facts/tidbits, but I'm shocked at how much praise this has received. Worth reading if you're interested generally in the subject, but I think there are probably more academic texts that actually stick to what they know as opposed to making bizarre conjectures.

[Rabbit {Paint me like one of your 19th century gothic heroines!} · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a okay book for body politics in feminism. While I don't agree with everything there are a lot of good and valid points. It does focus heavily on cis-gendered and white women, so lacking in diversity and intersectionality weakened the narrative.

There were a lot of interesting points made, but there were quite a few "meh" and "why" moments, so 3 stars seems to be the happy medium.

I'm not sure if keeper or not, so a re-read will have to determine that.

[Genevieve · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted this to be a better book than it was. The tracing of developments in the ways that girls' bodies in America have been socially regulated over the past century or so is pretty interesting stuff, but I was constantly frustrated by the complete lack of political analysis that the author brought to her narrative. While she does attend to the ways in which ideas about appropriate female bodies, beauty and hygiene were shaped by marketers with products to sell, Brumberg details these in an oddly passive way, divorced from the major social and political changes in women's rights--from suffrage to Roe v Wade--that occurred during the time period. The book gives the peculiar impression that pressures on women to conform to a beauty ideal arose organically out of changes in technology and economics; Brumberg doesn't seem to consider what would have caused the ads and marketing of various beauty products to be effective. In fact, she frequently treats advertisements as testimony for women's behavior and beliefs, eliding women and girls' own ability to be critical of advertising messages.

Not to mention that the touted use of girls' diaries as a historical source amounts to one representative per time period, and that the focus of the book--with a few disclaimers--is almost entirely on white, middle-class girls.

The most interesting observation that Brumberg makes is that, as women's clothing discarded the restricting apparati of the Victorian period (corsets, petticoats) restrictions on women's bodies did not disappear, but were transferred to the body itself, in the form of dieting, exercise, shaving, and other tasks that were demanded in order to maintain a 'correct' body shape. But she doesn't connect this with any feminist analysis, instead sticking to hand-wringing.

The history here is still interesting. But it suffers from the shallowness of the interpretation.

[Books Ring Mah Bell · Rating 2 out of 5]

We are obsessed with bodies and perfection as a culture.

We are willing to inject ourselves with toxins, go under for massive surgery to have things implanted/pulled/trimmed/tucked in and sucked out... We are willing to swallow pills, starve and/or puke to lose weight. We are willing to spend massive amounts of money on products for hair, skin, nails... We are willing to go into a salon and have a stranger wax hair off our crotch or bleach our assholes.


We are unwilling to cut ourselves some damn slack.





It's a decent book, and the comparisons from the journals of girls 100 years apart were interesting, but I'd pass this one up for something a bit more recent.

[Julie Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once I could devote real time to reading this, I sailed through it. Fascinating history of how girls learned about and felt about their bodies in the context of marketing, commercialism, and changes in education and social norms. The author's arguments were less interesting than the history because I don't think she can propose any real possible solutions to the problem she sees: the fact that when girls became more aware of their bodies and sexuality as a result of marketing efforts by companies (which indoctrinated girls at home and at school), the parental and social supports in place during the Victorian era left girls vulnerable. I hadn't realized that Girl Scouts and other girl social organizations were extensions of the parents during the Victorian period, and that women devoted/volunteered their time mentoring and chaperoning girls as they developed...it is true that there's less of this today. Perhaps this really only exists anymore within churches, and it seems that children brought up in healthy extended social networks do end up having better self esteem... I also hadn't considered that when Kotex pamphlets were given out as educational materials, moms stepped away from the important conversations about a girl's changing bodies and what it meant, leaving it all up to the magazine ads, sex ed at school (provided by profit-seeking corporations), and the doctors.

This book is older but still relevant, as the troubling issues in 1990's culture are just more of the same 20 years later with just further examples of what Brumberg sees as troubling. In fact, the recent #MeToo movement and what's trending in current issue coverage lately is proof of her argument and is what she predicted. I agree with her for the most part, but I don't see how it can be fixed---it was just a fascinating history and way to understand how we got to where we are. (It was sad to see that the whole obsession with our body fat started in the 20's and got increasingly worse).

I recommend this only to people interested in social history and girls' body image--I don't see many of my students wanting to read this when there are more current titles on this topic, but it was all that was available in our library at the time. An interesting read.

[Mickey Schulz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like her premise, but think she suffers a bit from bending the evidence to fit her thesis. I think a better thesis than "sexual liberation is making girls stress out about their bodies" is "sexual liberation is causing girls to stress out about their bodies in DIFFERENT ways than before." In a history of "beauty" that includes being corsetted until it deforms your internal organs and taking daily doses of arsenic to be pale and wan enough for the current style, I don't find dieting to the extremes of anorexia all that odd. Not to mention, her sample size for the early diaries skews decidedly upper middle class. Until the 20th century, the literacy rate in the English speaking world was nowhere near what it is today, so even though she uses contemporary accounts from the diaries of lower class girls, she can't really compare them to her earlier accounts. As much as many would like to deny it, America has ALWAYS had a class system, and in many ways it's just as inflexible as the monarchies and nobilities of Europe.

[Stephanie Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

while ultimately a fascinating and evergreen topic of consideration (the social factors that shape, damage, and capitalize on our perception of our bodies in girlhood), the thesis was lackluster in relation to the depth of research and historical considerations presented (I do appreciate the personal narration from diaries as a primary source though-the medium fits well).

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting in some areas, in particular when dealing with menstruation, but it loses something towards the end.

[Kaylee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 2.5 Stars

In this book, Brumberg examines the one hundred years of history between 1895 and 1995, and how society’s attitude has changed toward young women. She asks the question, even though we are now free of corsets and have more rights, do we really have it any better than our Victorian ancestors? To answer this, she cites passages from diaries of teenage girls dating back to the 1800s, research, and anecdotes from her own experiences as a teen and a professor.

One of her first claims is that girls didn’t focus on their body image until the 1920s. Before that, during the Victorian era, they focused mostly on being a good person and less upon their looks. “They almost always focused on the internal character and how it was reflected in outward behavior.” (p. xxi) Brumberg cites this as one of the major differences between girls of that era and girls of today – who believe the shape of their bodies and their appearance is what primarily reflects their individuality. Brumberg believes that this is due to changes in attitudes toward the developing female body, both medically and socially, it being especially influenced by media, advertising and fashion.

In some instances I’m sure this is very true, and the evidence she gives supporting her claims as to the medical attitudes seems to hold up well. However, she also blames the commercialization of sanitary napkins and tampons of ushering young girls into consumer culture too quickly. She says this is because when girls begin to menstruate, their mothers introduce them to a specific brand, and henceforth, they continue to buy that brand. I don’t see the logic in that. When I first went through menarche I grabbed what was handy. I may have since developed a brand loyalty, because certain products work better for me, but none were ever pushed on me as a developing teen.

Another issue Brumberg has that I don’t understand is the commercial treatment of acne. Maybe this is because I still live in an era where acne is considered gross and unattractive, but if it can be treated, I don’t see the problem with doing so. I had terrible acne as a teen, and I still battle it in my mid-twenties. It’s not fun, and I use both a commercial face-wash (that happens to work very well, thank you) and a prescribed cream from my doctor. I get that she feels the ads are are hurting their self-esteem by telling young teens that acne makes them less desirable. Having acne in general hurts the self-esteem, especially when you get picked on for it by your school mates. As Brumberg proved in her history of acne, it has always been an undesirable thing, linked to syphilis and being dirty, and a negative attitude about it still exists today. Maybe she could suggest a way to change attitudes toward acne?

As other reviewers have stated, it is problematic that Brumberg only really focused on the white, middle class population of young women during her research. There is one small mention of a black girl, and very little exploration into the differences in attitude between African American culture and White culture on the topic of young female bodies. There is no mention of Hispanic or Asian views on the topic either, just straight white middle class culture.

I also didn’t like how she worded her beginning to her chapter on sexuality. She makes it seem like homosexuality/lesbianism is a choice – which wasn’t apparent in the rest of the chapter, but still irked me. I don’t think she meant it to come off as it did, but I’ve never met a gay person who “chose” to be that way, and I found it an offensive implication. She also linked homosexuality with the practice of S&M – which is something that many heterosexual couples also practice.

Lastly, she blames the over-sexualization of little girls for a rise in pedophilia. I don’t necessarily buy that. I’m sure it doesn’t help the issue, don’t get me wrong, I’m not for the sexualizing of young girls. I just feel like pedophilia didn’t seem to exist to Brumberg until relatively recently, when it has been around for ages, just not as fully looked into as it is today. Child abuse wasn’t even really considered a serious crime until the 1960s, and before that, sex of any kind was considered shameful to talk about. Children could have been abused physically, sexually, or emotionally and felt it wasn’t something they could talk about – and if they did, no one else would think it was wrong. They may not have even had the words to describe it, as Victorian girls didn’t have the vocabulary to discuss their own bodies. Also, if sexualization of little girls is solely to blame for pedophilia, what about the ones that prefer little boys? I don’t mean to be disturbing or dwell on a nasty topic, but the fact is that some like little girls and some like little boys, and I don’t feel that young boys are as sexualized as girls are.

I did like the historical aspects of the book, however. I find history in general very interesting, but women’s history is even more so. I learned from this book that having excessive acne in the Victorian era made people think you had a lot of sex or masturbated frequently. I also learned that gynecology was developed in the late 1800s, but its first major use was checking to see if a girl was still a virgin. Also, doctors felt that rectal exams were less invasive than vaginal ones. Another interesting thing I learned was that when tampons were invented, the general public believed them to be little more than dildos that women would use to masturbate. There is much more, but these four things are what I remember most.

I also like Brumberg’s thought of bringing back the Victorian idea of girl’s groups, where young ladies could meet each other and be mentored by older girls/women. I think I benefitted greatly by having strong female role models in my life, and now, especially when we live in such a fast-paced society, girls probably need the guidance more than ever. We live in a time where some parents have to work really long hours and don’t always have as much time to spend with their children – many kids end up being raised by a television set, and the media definitely does have a poisonous effect on body image. Being able to talk about these concerns with someone older who has dealt with the same issues would greatly help young girls develop healthier attitudes toward their bodies.

Overall, while the book is worth the read, it is a bit outdated, and some of Brumberg’s opinions didn’t make a lot of sense to me. The best aspects of the book to me were the parts that dealt solely with the historic beliefs, facts and laws. I also liked the diary excerpts, even if the sampling was only from one small portion of our society. Brumberg does have some good ideas, but some of her beliefs are a little far-fetched for me, making them hard to follow and/or agree with. I think the book could have been researched and edited a little more, based on more evidence and less conjecture from the author, but it is still an informative read.

[Kati · Rating 4 out of 5]

soo interesting! a little outdated (from 1997) but the messages still resonate. made me think about my body as part of a longer history of girlhood, womanhood, menstruation, sexualization... need to chew on some of her conclusions though, like about restricting teen sexuality and how lesbianism “arose” recently. would more aptly be named American “white cis straight girls with little side chapters for other identities”.

[Elena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brumberg makes an interesting case for how American consumerism, media, and physicians have shaped the relationship between American girls and their bodies, encouraging scrutiny and the need to fit into the changing societal ideals of beauty and perfection. I appreciated Brumberg's methodology: she drew much of her evidence from the diary entries of American girls, making the book personal and intimate.
That said, this book lost stars for two reasons. First, there were a some points throughout the book where Brumberg based her argument solely on the experiences of white, middle-class girls. That was disappointing. The book as a whole would've benefited from a greater discussion of the experiences of girls of color. Secondly, in her conclusion Brumberg asserts that while girls have a lot more freedom and autonomy by the end of the 20th centiry, particularly in the realm of sexual expression, they are also more of a target for sexual pressures, sexual violence, and pressures to engage in body projects. I completely agree with her. As a solution, Brumberg asserts that adolescent girls need increased protection. To some extent, I agree with this: I think intergenerational female support networks are important to help girls come of age, particularly helping them build confidence in themselves and giving them safe spaces to learn about what they want and need. We should also work on passing policy that supports women's health and wellbeing. However, Brumberg almost goes to the extreme, saying that adolescent girls really cannot be trusted with their own decisions about intimacy/sexuality and need more oversight. In making an argument about protecting girls, Brumberg not only comes off as not very sex positive, she also completely looses sight of the broader picture: if girls are being sexualized at a young age, if they are self-conscious about their bodies because they are exposed to unrealistic expectations, SOCIETY needs to change.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

half-way through, and this is fascinating, albeit occassionally uncomfortable stuff.
****************************
uncomfortable is an understatement. the story is a tragedy, really. and then it sinks in that it is a tragedy that i have lived (and continue to live). it's one of those books that i wish more people who should read it would read it, but they probably won't. though it was in the late 90s - not that long ago - it seems things continue to decline in the realm of young girls and it's incredibly disheartening.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I did not have to read this for class, I would not have finished reading it, the chapters felt like they were going to go on forever, something that could have been covered in a paragraph took a chapter or two. Two chapters on periods were the first two chapters, it was too much.

[Ivy Brundege · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Body Project is the book I’d like to give to people when they tell a young girl that her looks, body, or makeup are “not a big deal”.

The central thesis of this book is that, as society has developed and feminism, sexuality, and social standards have all changed, the body has become a central point of social currency for American women and girls. This is the so called “body project” — the mandatory effort and consciousness a woman must put into her appearance to not only gain romantic interest, but also simple worth and credibility. In many ways, appearance isn’t an aspect of vanity. It’s a prerequisite for belonging in modern society. Even to “opt out” of societal beauty standards is still a body project in and of itself.

My favorite parts of The Body Project were the historical deep dives, which covered everything from menstruation and clear skin to sexual norms and commercialism. The major takeaway from these chapters, in my opinion, is that girls have never been the primary owners of their bodies. Stakeholders from marketers to parents to doctors have always influenced the trajectory of care for women. We pride ourselves on being free from the restrictive rules of the Victorian era: parental and spousal rule over girls’ bodies (especially the hymen), restrictive clothing, repressed sexuality, and total lack of medical knowledge, to name a few. However, I think we’ve been oversold the illusion of freedom in modern days. The author of this book questions, is it all that much better to have a body that’s governed by the need for sexual allure, a heightened focus on appearance, entire industries of beauty products, and STILL a total lack of medical knowledge? We’ve made so much ground on feminism and freedom, but in some ways we’ve lost a lot of the ideals of protection and peer support.

I did have some issues with the book— much of the discussion on homosexuality and sexuality in general felt outdated and/or unsubstantiated. I feel like the final chapter abandoned the rigorous history the rest of the book had, and felt a lot like personal conjecture that I could’ve gotten behind if it had been explained with more nuance or evidence. I think it made a poor conclusion to what was an otherwise cohesive and convincing text. Additionally, I think the author failed to follow up on her initially strong critique of consumerism’s relationship to women.

That being said, I think the rest of the book as a stand alone piece does an excellent job of providing a glimpse into everyone who gets to decide what to make of women’s bodies. Despite my qualms with the book, I recommend it to anyone who has ever lived inside a woman’s body. Or perceived one, for that matter.

[Aisha Manus · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book does have some issues, such as its focus on mainly middle class white Girls while claiming is about all middle class girls I still really liked it, especially the history of menarche and how its had an effect on the economy. Just some really interesting topics within this book and interesting to read the view point of someone 20 years ago.

[Greta Krueger · Rating 5 out of 5]

super interesting history of menstruation, puberty, acne, dieting and sexuality in American culture. this is my special interest so ofc I really enjoyed this book. I found it especially fascinating how the author shows that while the 1920s are often seen as a liberating period for women, in reality the fashions of this era and following epochs have been in reality far more demanding of women, in ways that are harder to achieve. the whole idea of the body as a project is so interesting to me, especially as it is my own truth of so many of my peers. I never considered that this is a product of changes in fashions, not just a result of capitalism and class. I also especially liked that this book was informed by diaries of real people.

my main critique of this book is in the way brumberg treats the topic of race. she approaches the white American experience as the default and only mentions a person's race if they happen to be Black. that said, and I'm glad she chose to discuss race, instead of omitting people of colors' experiences, and the way that race impacts body image.

[Alyssa Stager · Rating 3 out of 5]

solid. i would like to see her take on the 2000s & 2010s

[Megan Raisch-Jenkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

girlhood is CRAZY and it ALWAYS HAS BEEN

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

again read this book for class and i had to read it so fast. it was okay because i felt like it was pretty outdated

[Tara DeMaderios · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book, although I thought most of the first chapter was pointless, boring, dry, and irrelevant. However, I kept reading because I was told this was an excellent book by a friend whose literary opinion I highly value and trust. It was over all a good book. It evoked an intimacy with me as a reader, because growing up in the United States as a girl causes some universal emotions and experiences that this book clearly hits on. Mostly it gave some historical perspective on viewpoints I already hold, but I can appreciate what the author is trying to accomplish. I think she, as do I, hopes to create a dialogue between mothers and daughters. This book might be appropriate for a teen girl to read, but I did feel the prose leaned towards being academic and therefore might not be appealing to the average teen girl. Also, by the time I would feel my teen daughter was ready to read some of the more heavy material contained in this book, some of it's efficacy might have "missed the boat" so to speak. If anything, I came away from reading this book with strengthened resolve to have frequent, detailed discussions with my daughters about many aspects of their developing bodies and sexuality.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book provides good insight into how girls view themselves and the standards imposed on them by society. Challenges girls to re-think what's important in establishing a sense of identity. I think it is sad that girls have become so obsessed with their bodies and their physical appearance rather than paying attention to building their inner character and individuality. I also appreciate how the author pointed out that the feminist movement did more harm than good to women, which I agree with.

[Heather Olson Beal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read. I agree with some of the criticisms here, but overall, was very interested and learned a lot about the changes in the ways adolescent girls view their bodies. Definitely recommend to anyone with daughters. A lot to think about--whether you agree with the authors' conclusions or not.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really interesting book for anyone who is a woman or knows a woman. It talks about how girls' body images have changed over the decades. It focuses mostly on middle-class white Americans, which makes me curious about other people's experiences of body image.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't agreee with everything that the author said, but it was really an eye opener. It really is hard being a girl. A must read for anyone with daughters.

[Marla McMackin]

In The Body Project (1997), Joan Jacobs Brumberg explores the changing experience of female maturation in the years between the 1830s and 1990s. She gathers rich detail from diaries written by generally white, middle-class American girls to tell the story of how their relationship to their own body has changed. In pairing these personal accounts with medical guides and other primary sources on prevailing trends, Brumberg presents a convincing argument that a combination of biological and cultural forces made the adolescent female body a template for much of the social change in the twentieth century, which included more sexual freedoms.

By 1900, American women had undergone an “ovulatory revolution.” A dramatic rise in the standard of living meant that children were better nourished and healthier and their bodies began to develop earlier. As more young people attended high school and college, women began to marry later, giving birth to fewer children, which lead to more ovulatory cycles – or periods – during a lifetime. Into the twentieth century, Victorian ideals continued to link earlier menarche with promiscuous sexuality. The ability to protect girlhood innocence was seen as a hallmark of Christian civilization. “From the perspective of a middle-class parent, then, prolonging the time between menarche and marriage increased the prospect of sexual danger. Thus, suppression of sexuality was considered absolutely necessary to the healthy development of both the mind and the body of the adolescent girl (Brumberg, p. 16).

Brumberg explores the “protective umbrella” that was constructed through conscious efforts to suppress the sexuality of adolescent women. Character development was actively promoted through wholesome reading, charitable works and social activities, all under the supervision of responsible women of “appropriate” class and religious background. A vast organizational complex of single-sex groups developed through the 1920s, each devoted to the common mission of keeping girlhood chaste. Intergenerational mentoring also led to widespread social interaction between adolescence girls and young women based on the need to protect all girls, not just one’s own daughters, from premature sexuality and manipulation at the hands of men. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union also launched a nationwide effort to raise the age of sexual consent, which was as low as ten in some states. Reformers heralded the resulting statutory rape laws as a way of protecting girls from the vices of adult men. “All of this concern – on the local and state levels – about preserving the sexual innocence of younger women resulted in a great deal of community supervision…Some of it was undoubtedly repressive and unkind; some of it was not. Most of all, this ‘protective umbrella’ meant that girls had many projects – other than their own bodies – to keep them busy and engaged” (Brumberg, p. 18).

While Brumberg is not clear about what happened to this “protective umbrella,” one can assume it could not survive the processes that reshaped much of America following World War II, including new ways of viewing adolescent sexuality. Yet, even at its peak, it could not protect girls from emerging societal pressures to look in certain ways. As concerns about beauty and disease merged in the early twentieth century, the pursuit of perfect skin was transformed into a legitimate health strategy deserving of adult support that continues to generate enormous profits for both the cosmetic and drug industries. Orthodontia, weight-loss camps, contact lenses and plastic surgery followed, revealing how parental resources could be harnessed to achieve the ideal of physical perfection. According to Brumberg, American girls could not help but internalize this powerful imperative and, in the process, the body became their central personal project. By the 1990s, the contours of their bodies were of particular concern – especially the shape, size and muscle tone – because the body was seen as the ultimate expression of the self. “On the one hand, their parents and teachers told them that being female was no bar to accomplishment. Yet girls of their generation learned from a very early age that the power of their gender was tied to what they looked like – and how ‘sexy’ they were – rather than to character or achievement” (Brumberg, p. 195).

The “protective umbrella” also didn’t stop girls from becoming more sexual. The push for independence and sexual modernity of the 1920s “jazz” generation described by Cahn mark what Brumberg calls America’s first great “sexual revolution.” Young girls began to consider the Victorian concept of virginity an outmoded ideal, which added to an already powerful complex of forces that disinhibited their sexuality, including fashion, movies, popular music, magazines and automobiles. They also found the words to talk about sex in their personal diaries. One such young woman, Yvonne Blue, began to date at the age of eighteen and her diary describes the physical pleasure she took from the relationship with her first boyfriend, Peter. Despite Prohibition and a watchful, middle-class mother, Blue’s initial sexual interactions with Peter almost always involved the consumption of alcohol and the use of a car. In the summer of 1930, a nineteen-year-old Blue still was not ready for intercourse, but had engaged in more restrained forms of sexual interaction such as necking and petting. In one passage she describes herself as “awfully excited” before a date, adding that before going out she laid “down in the dark and listed to dance music on the radio and even then I felt that I wanted to be “loved.’” Blue stopped short of losing her virginity on that night, and on many others, using euphemisms such as “worked up” and “gone so far” to explain what had happened. Although petting was commonplace among adolescents of her age and class, she still worried about her reputation and felt the need to clarify in her diary just how far she had not gone: “I’m still technically a “nice girl.” Later she explains that “Once in a while I feel slightly ashamed of myself for indulging in the greatest American sport but something must be the matter with me because while I think it’s wrong I really, really can’t feel that it is’” (Brumberg, p. 155).

By the 1980s, America had undergone a second sexual revolution and girls had few restraints on their sexuality as long as they used contraceptives to avoid pregnancy. Sexual expression had come to be seen as a critical personal right to which even adolescents were entitled. In her diary, fourteen-year-old Deborah Perry considers the possibility of intercourse even before her first date. She writes repeatedly about her crush on a boy named Josh adding, “I really want to lose my virginity with him, that’s for sure.” Fearing the weight gain associated with oral contraceptives, Perry had decided to use a diaphragm, which she obtained through her mother’s gynecologist. While she was never able to use it with her next intended first lover, she began to wear it almost continually, in order to be prepared for sex whenever it might occur. By the time Perry was sixteen, she had had experiences with a number of different sexual partners. Brumberg explains that Perry’s sexual autonomy was rooted in her peer group, in a sexually stimulating popular culture, and in the general decline of protective supervision and nurturance of girls. Even advice columns in teen magazines allowed that intercourse with contraceptives might be an appropriate decision for an adolescent, as long as the young woman felt safe and comfortable. Her sexual freedom was also aided and abetted by parental and medical neutrality. “Parents like the Perry’s did not prohibit sexuality in their young daughter’s life, perhaps because their own upbringing had been repressive and they wanted something different for her. As they listened to stories about her romantic travails and sexual exploits with boys, they made no moral pronouncements and insisted only on constant use of birth control” (Brumberg, p. 185).

[Stasia Higgins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be very interesting for its history of the middle-class adolescent experience, though I did not always agree with the author’s conclusions. I found it difficult to believe that adolescent girls were not sexually abused before the sexual revolution of the 20th century, and she (like many other historians) also claims that women in same-sex relationships did not have sex with each other until the 1970s when they “discovered” the possibility.

She tries to discuss the experiences of non-white middle class girls but mainly relegated them as well as impoverished girls of all races to afterthoughts.

I found her conclusion to be much more problematic than the rest of the book, as she first says that teenage pregnancy is incorrectly believed to be mostly the “issue” of poor Black teenagers, then proceeds to only talk about how and why poor Black teenagers get themselves pregnant (deliberately worded that way by me as she seems to view it as mainly intentional). It was odd for her to only discuss Black teenage pregnancy since every other topic in the book was framed by white middle class girls’ experience, and she even specified that teenage pregnancy occurs in all races and classes of girls. As another reviewer pointed out, she provided no citation for her claim that in the 1990s, one-third of Black men between 18 and 30 were in jail or prison. I have a degree in Criminal Justice and to the best of my knowledge this is incorrect: the real statistic was (and still is) that one out of every three Black men are likely to be sent to jail or prison in their lifetime, not that 1/3 of young Black men are imprisoned at any given moment. I think it’s also important to note that mass incarceration has disproportionately affected men of color and white men commit crimes at approximately the same rate.

I think this book was better off as a history of the changes in adolescent experiences than as a guide to what needs to change. The conclusion recommendations are vague and not very helpful, and frankly her ideas that sexual liberation is the cause of sexual abuse and coercion just don’t seem supported by the evidence. She never considers that because girls have the language to discuss sexual behaviors and their own bodies now, abuse is just becoming more widely reported.

This review comes off very harsh for something I really enjoyed reading for the most part, because most of my issues were found in the last 1/4 of the book. Overall, I found it very interesting though. I thought her hypothesis that control over female bodies has shifted from external (corsets) to internal (dieting) to be very believable. A lot of what she discussed rang true with my own experiences growing up in the 21st century, and I loved the diary excerpts.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book despite my lack of agreement with her conclusions and areas where research was lacking altogether or other solutions were not presented. I think the first 3/4 of the book are much more solidly researched and presented than the last few chapters.

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an adult woman in America (who read The Feminine Mystique in high school) I'm of course aware, in the back of my mind, that women and girls are being marketed to on a nonstop basis, and that marketing is an insidious form of social manipulation that drives our behaviors and changes our thoughts about ourselves, our bodies, our self-images, our wants. That awareness can fade deeper into the background, though, if we don't remind ourselves from time to time to stop and take an objective look at the products in our lives and how the maker stands to benefit from what we think and feel about the product. The Body Project is a slap in the face kind of reminder, and one I think I needed.

By using real womens' and girls' diaries, reaching back into the 1800s and early 1900s up to the date of publication (90's iirc), Brumberg is able to draw a clear picture of how American girls' and their mothers' behaviors changed over time. She traces changes in clothing, acne treatment & beliefs, menstruation & timing of puberty, sexual availability, body image/weight, and gynecology, candidly discussing the pros and cons of the evolving changes, and always with an eye toward how manufacturers, media, and advertisers deliberately reshaped our attitudes and beliefs about ourselves for their own monetary benefit. I hadn't thought specifically about how changes in the "ideal" body decade to decade were driven by corset makers, and eventually bra manufacturers, and while I was aware of the look-at-your-own-vulva movement of the 70's, I hadn't had the context to link that practice to the increasing availability and marketing of tampons.

It's undeniable that in many aspects, women today have things much easier than women of 100 years ago, but Brumberg also makes clear the cost to women that comes with an increasingly public, increasingly scrutinized and sexualized treatment of our bodies. The time and suffering expended in endless rounds of dieting and self-deprivation in order to present a perfect swimsuit image to the public gaze, with the nature of that perfect image shifting from generation to generation (flat chests, large breasts, pointy breasts, slim hips, big butts, soft stomachs, flat stomachs, six-pack abs, small feet, shaved legs, waxed bikini lines, flattening corsets, no bras, push-up bras, crinolines, flapper dresses, miniskirts, skinny jeans) -- it's exhausting even to contemplate.

Through it all, Brumberg is compassionate and clear, offering up her own girlhood experiences along with the diary excerpts of women long since passed, and urging that parents and teachers attempt to deliberately counteract some of the advertisers' messages to allow their daughters some additional time to BE girls.

[Madeline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall meh. There was certainly some good - if basic - information here. I especially liked one of the author's closing conclusions that female empowerment requires confidence and knowledge about the body (though this wasn't exactly groundbreaking). However:

- As I said, the information was rather basic. This book might be beneficial to an introductory course or someone curious about but totally unfamiliar with the topic. However, there were many points the author raised that clearly needed expansion - for instance, she mentioned multiple medical practices that were/are not truly medically beneficial, but didn't delve into why/how these practices were actually detrimental.

- The author acknowledged that Victorian attitudes towards women were bad, yet several times she seemed to glorify said Victorian attitudes. For instance, she states that the Victorians would be appalled at the (terrible) way poor pregnant adolescents are treated in the USA today, but the reality the Victorians would not have treated them better and likely somewhat worse than today.

- The author makes some decent points about the dangers of our current hyper sexualized culture, but her only suggested solutions involve restrictions/micromanagement of teenage girls. She also acknowledges the problems with contemporary conservative attitudes towards young poor mothers, yet she seems unaware that in many subcultures of the USA, the idea (popular in the Victorian age) that young women should have no sexual desire in order to be 'good' (i.e. purity culture) dominates to this day and is just as destructive as subcultures that encourage excessive expression of sexuality.

- There were some signs that the author may not have had the best information in writing this book. For instance, at one point she recollects the story of a young woman who restricted her food intake to around 100-200 calories a day, and the author states she did not have anorexia nervosa. Perhaps she wasn't diagnosed with the condition, but it's quite likely she should have been, and this should have been the author's conclusion. She was not outright homophobic (doesn't discourage girls from being gay), but some homophobic language snuck in at multiple times, and it came across as if she was both unfamiliar and uncomfortable with gay people.

In conclusion, I can only recommend this book as a decent introduction to women's studies/feminist discourse on the human body, but if you're already familiar with the topic, it's going to be frustrating and not very helpful.