Check out our Body Outlaws book (formerly Adios, Barbie)! Edited by our very own Adiosbarbie.com co-founder, Ophi, with handy dandy bodylovin’ exercises from Pia, the site” other co-founder. If you like the blog, you’ll love the book!
Book Description
Pick up a magazine, turn on the TV, and you’ll find few women who haven’t been fried, dyed, plucked, or tucked. In short, you’ll see no body outlaws. The writers in this groundbreaking anthology reveal a world where bodies come in all their many-splendored shapes, sizes, colors, and textures. In doing so, they expand the national dialogue on body image to include race, ethnicity, sexuality, and power-issues that, while often overlooked, are intimately linked to how women feel about their bodies. Body Outlaws offers stories by those who have chosen to ignore, subvert, or redefine the dominant beauty standard in order to feel at home in their bodies. In a culture where plastic surgery has become nearly as routine as a root canal, this expanded and updated edition of fresh and incisive commentary challenges the media’s standard notions of beauty with honesty and humor. Included are several new essays outlining the latest trends in the beauty industry such as Botox, plastic surgery, and exercise bulimia, as well as a fascinating analysis of how men are affected by these same rigors, a thorough resource section, and a curriculum guide.
Amazon
.com Review
The breezy, irreverent essays in Adios, Barbie (now called Body Outlaws) are a welcome antidote to the narrow cultural consciousness the tiny doll has fostered for more than 40 years. While thousands of little girls worship Barbie’s plasticine perfection, those who wind up dissatisfied with the message she sends–be white, be skinny, be stacked, be pretty, and then you’ll be loved–can tell you how a toy skews body image in the real world. Among whites talking trash about blacks and upwardly mobile black folks, notes Erin J. Aubry, big butts are suspect–“low-class and ghettoish,” the antithesis of Barbie’s tightly tucked derriere. Yet on good days, Aubry applauds her ample proportions, for “unlike hair or skin, the butt is stubborn, immutable–it can’t be hot-combed or straightened or bleached into submission. It does not assimilate; it never took a slave name.” In “Fishnets, Feather Boas, and Fat,” Nomy Lam–a 250-pound, 22-year-old disabled woman–and friends e (more…)
5.0 out of 5 stars
*so* amazing
I brought this book with me to work one day and I finished in less than a week…which is quite a feat for a slow reader like me, but I couldn’t put it down.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting but flawed
The idea behind “Adios Barbie” is interesting, mixing two controversial and explosive issues (body image and ethnic identity), but it isn’t pulled off perfectly.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book!
I have never been really into Women’s Studies, but I recently saw this book and was intrigued. Like almost every woman on earth, I struggle with my feelings about my body.
1.0 out of 5 stars
??????
This book was recommended by a psychiatrist to help me with my poor self image, due in large part to my obesity. I just don’t get it.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty Good
I had to read this for my Intro to Women’s Studies class and it’s pretty good. The stories/essays come from a good mix of individuals from various classes, backgrounds, etc.
2.0 out of 5 stars
An inflated attempt to exalt the female form – in all its spotty, crinkled, cellulite glory
I’m not of the Oprah/self-help persuasion that this book tries to please but I sense that those who are will enjoy the myriad of essays that assure women that your body looks…
4.0 out of 5 stars
I am giving this book 4 stars. I wanted to give it 3.5. I don’t know how to do to this or if it is even possible. Ya…
I bought this book during my introductory phase of my submersion into the pool of information that is feminist theory.
5.0 out of 5 stars
a must read for every woman, especially teenager
If you have a daughter, sister, any young “influencable” woman, get this for her please.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book!
I was required to get this book for a women’s study course for college. I’m very glad that I did. This is a compliation of many stories from different women, either going through…
4.0 out of 5 stars
Funny & Interesting!
I actually enjoyed this one quite a bit…most of the books about “body issues” or female sexuality (or some combination of the two) have, thus far, been by single authors.