Published in 1993
361 pages
Susan Bordo is an internationally known cultural historian, feminist scholar, and media critic. Her first book, The Flight to Objectivity, is considered a classic of feminist philosophy. In 1993, increasingly aware of our culture’s preoccupation with weight and body image, she published Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, a book that is still widely read and assigned in classes today. During speaking tours for that book, she encountered many young men who asked, “What about us?” The result was The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private (1999). Both books were highly praised by reviewers, with Unbearable Weight named a 1993 Notable Book by the New York Times and The Male Body featured in Mademoiselle, Elle, Vanity Fair, NPR, and MSNBC. Both books have been translated into many languages, and individual chapters, many of which are considered paradigms of lucid writing, are frequently re-printed in collections and writing textbooks.
What is this book about?
From an immensely knowledgeable feminist perspective, in engaging, jargonless prose, Bordo analyzes a whole range of issues connected to the body—weight and weight loss, exercise, media images, movies, advertising, anorexia and bulimia, and much more—in a way that makes sense of our current social landscape. This is a great book for anyone who wonders why women’s magazines are always describing delicious food as ‘sinful’ and why there is a cake called Death by Chocolate.
