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Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters has been nominated for a Books for a Better Life award!
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Filled with information from expert psychologists and hundreds of interviews with women with eating disorders, Courtney E. Martin's Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters is a wake-up call to women of all ages and races to recognize the epidemic of eating disorders and what it's doing to them, their daughters, friends, and relatives. Courtney Martin argues passionately that women must commit themselves to developing new attitudes about their bodies, and redirect the negative energy they spend on denying themselves contentment in order to become re-engaged with the possibilities of a better life.
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Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body
Courtney E. Martin. Free Press, $25 (256p) ISBN 978-0-7432-8796-8
It is no longer enough for girls to be good, says journalist and teacher Martin in her debut book. Girls must now be perfect, and that need for perfection is played out in women's bodies. But beneath the high-achieving 'perfect girl' surface, seven million American girls and women suffer from an eating disorder; 90% of high school–aged girls think they are overweight. Drawing on more than 100 interviews with women and girls ages 9–29, Martin constructs a cultural critique of a generation of girls steeped in the language of self-control. 'If I'm not thinking about my body or calories, I'm probably sleeping or dead,' a 14-year-old confesses. Such heartbreaking quotes fill the book and fuel Martin's anger. In chapters devoted to the influence of 'porn culture,' the role fathers play in shaping their daughters' self-image, eating disorders among athletes, the narrowly circumscribed role of women in hip-hop and more, Martin explores the forces that drive young women to sacrifice themselves on the altar of perfection. A self-described perfect girl, Martin brings a personal perspective to the topic. If occasionally overambitious in her reach, Martin has a valuable mission: calling on young women to harness their intellectual and emotional energy and learn to enjoy their bodies, 'imperfect' though they may be. (Apr.)
"Pulling from an army of feminist thinkers (from poet Nicole Blackman to Anna Quindlen), Martin makes a significant—and desperately needed—move forward in the theorizing around body image and eating disorders."
—Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, co-authors of Manifesta and Grassroots
"An engaging and heartbreaking account of the tragic circumstances girls and women find themselves in today as they struggle to find a body they can feel secure with."
—Susie Orbach, author of Fat Is a Feminist Issue
"Original, passionate, and important, Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters shines a light on a troubling trend in young women's development. Martin's gripping stories give us a new way to understand the plight of the struggling young women we love, if not a new way to think about ourselves."
—Rachel Simmons, author of Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls
"Courtney Martin's book, Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, is a courageous, intelligent, warm, and insightful deconstruction of the complicated experience of becoming a woman for this generation. She tells a new story, from the inside looking out, at the ongoing issues that anyone tuned into the media or in relationship to a young woman sees but may not understand. Her relentlessly honest and exposing account of interviews, research, and personal experience reveals a daunting reality: the self-destructive ways women cope with the impossible pressures and expectations of a society obsessed with achievement and perfection. Anyone wanting to know the truth of how our vital, brilliant, talented young female generation is slowly being eroded, and also wants to travel the road to re-empowerment, must read this."
—Ellen M. Boeder, M.A., L.P.C., primary therapist, The Eating Disorder Center of Denver
"Reading this book, I said to myself, 'If only.' If only girls were demanding applause instead of starving for food, thirsting for knowledge instead of hungering for support, and knowing how perfectly perfect they are in every way instead of letting doubt run rampant. Fortunately, Courtney E. Martin is here to move women in the right direction. She writes about body image with passion, intelligence, savvy, and curiosity. Best of all, readers will know that this will be just the first of Martin's many worthy reads."
—Wendy Shanker, author of The Fat Girl's Guide to Life
"For health professionals, Courtney Martin gives an indispensable guide into food behavior. Using compelling personal insights, she effortlessly conveys the tangle of nutritional health and disordered eating. Stories of dieting daughters and young women seeking their worth in weight are told with uncommon wit and wisdom. Tragicomic accounts of Martin's college experience combine with sharp analysis that anyone can enjoy and employ, from dietitians and physicians dealing with full blown eating disorders to parents and their children who face the impossible paradox of perfect girls and starving daughters."
—Sharron Dalton, Professor of Nutrition and Registered Dietitian, New York University and author of Our Overweight Children: What Parents, Schools, and Communities Can Do About the Fatness Epidemic
"Martin presents an inspirational collection of research and stories about the problem young girls are tormented by in today's society. No ethnic group is excluded from this epidemic. Perfect girls are not anorexic daughters. The desire to be thin is masking the true underlying problem—the desire to be loved and acknowledged. This book is an invaluable tool for all of us. A MUST READ!"
—Laura E. Corio, MD, author of The Change Before the Change
"With a sharp analysis communicated through heartbreaking stories, Martin exposes how hard most women have it these days when it comes to being secure in their physical appearance. Martin delves into the psychological, emotional and social side effects of a generation gone perfect. Anyone who has ever felt that twinge of not being good enough, skinny enough, pretty enough for the world at large should sit down with this book and see how deep the rabbit hole goes. We can only begin to act on our own behalf once we see how comprehensive this social disorder is—Martin makes it clear that the time to act is now!"
—Adrienne Maree Brown, Executive Director, The Ruckus Society
"Through fast-paced stories and conclusions based on insightful, riveting details, Martin establishes that virtually every woman is confused about food and her body. Martin 'outs' the still taboo parts of this issue. Brilliant, sensitive women aren't running the world because they've been conned into hating their bodies, an ever more appalling waste of time, energy, and resources leading to obsessive unhappiness. This book will do much to help us explore the sexy, confusing, messy subject of why women (and increasingly, men) don't love their own bodies and nourish them accordingly."
—Karen Kisslinger, columnist, teacher (Woodhull Institute Faculty), nationally certified acupuncturist, healer, and mother of recovering EDer
"Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters is a courageous, intelligent, and provocative exploration of the matrix of psychosocial forces that influence the development of contemporary young women. Thoughtfully researched and rich with trenchant insights, compelling interviews, and eye-opening anecdotes, I will recommend it without reservation to patients and colleagues alike. Ms. Martin is to be commended for the lucid and astute perspective she brings to these complicated but essential matters."
—Brad Sachs, PhD, psychologist and author of When No One Understands, The Good Enough Teen, and The Good Enough Child
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