Body Outlaws: Rewriting the Rules of Beauty and Body Image (Live Girls)

by Ophira Edut

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580051081
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Seal Press
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.0" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

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. It's just so great to know that I'm not alone. It's inspiring to read about women who've made peace or made progress with their body images. This book definitely made me more aware of images of beauty that society considers normal. I realized that I've spent my whole life swallowing what the media tells me to and letting that form my self image. The contributors to this book are very diverse but are united as well.

Body Outlaws

"Ophira Edut is one of those renaissance kinda gals who causes you to wonder what you've been doing with all your spare time. The founding publisher of HUES (Hear Us Emerging Sisters) magazine, a web designer, illustrator, writer and lecturer, she has been creating public space for women and girls to raise their voices and be heard for years. All this, and she's still in her 20s. With Body Outlaws, Edut has brought together 26 different women's voices to collectively challenge unrealistic mainstream mythologies of beauty and body image. Body Outlaws is a republication of Edut's first book Adios Barbie, with the addition of two new chapters and a slightly revised introduction...I don't think that I would be amiss in surmising that as women/girls, we each have body image issues. Obsessions that evolve out of our own human body's failure to measure up to unrealistic lifestyles and standards of beauty that surround us. The articles in Body Outlaws deal with all these insecurities and misgivings with a refreshingly honest approach. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the articles that Edut has collected, is the spectrum of body issues that they address. Not focusing on the traditional obsession with weight alone, Edut's contributors speak on skin, noses, hair, lips, butts and the like. ...The writers in Body Outlaws are unabashedly frank, willing to reveal their own complicated "-isms" in their privileging of qualities of "the other" over their own. The book is worth the investment for Nomy Lamm's piece alone. Her honest and witty style always charm the pants off me. Here she addresses the issue of actively engaging in beauty and enjoying and celebrating your own sense of style and artifice rather than pretending that looks don't matter. The two new articles -- one by Christy Damio on losing her eyesight at age 13, and the other on being a plus-sized model, by Kate Dillon - are excellent additions to the anthology.Body Outlaws is up there on the list of books that I wish someone had given me when I was 13 years old to help me deconstruct all of the negativity that I was beginning to stockpile about my relationship to my body. To that end, it is a book I intend to pass on to every young woman I encounter. As a woman in her mid-twenties, its strength is not lost on me and it is a welcome addition to my library. So head to your favourite neighbourhood bookstore or online vendor and get yourself a copy. With the variety of voices and perspectives represented within this collection you will be sure to find something that resonates." --Emira Mears can be found at Soapbox Girls.

ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!

Wow... I could not put this down. This book is a must for anyone interested in women's issues! It speaks about the pervasive image of "barbies" in our culture, and the challenges that unique women must face. There is something in this book that every woman can relate to! "Adios, Barbie!" is a lovely celebration of inner beauty and a healthy attitude! I suggest purchasing this book now, as the title and cover will soon be changed due to a lawsuit from the Mattel Company. (Did you know that Mattel has actually patented a shade of pink as "Barbie pink" ? ) Enjoy!

Third Wave Feminists Succeed Again

This is a brilliant, witty, sad, and angry book that is a must-read for any woman who has ever been unhappy, happy or indifferent about her own body. Another exciting sample of Third-Wave Feminists clever, quick-witted writing. And of course, for those who love controversy, this is also a must-read. The publishers (Seal Press Feminist Publications -- the same that brought you Listen Up!) are being sued by Mattel for their use of Barbie images!

Great book.

This is a collection of articulate, very personal, first-person accounts of some (diverse!) young women and their bodies: their hair, their skin, their muscle, their fat, their immune systems...you get the idea. My favorites include a black woman on the suspicions her "healthy" diet raises, a nice mile-long trek in the shoes of a woman with severe allergies, and the "Klaus Barbie" essay, which may be worth the price of the whole thing. I thought all the contributions were enlightening, though some are funny, some angry, some sober, and some pretty devasting. Cheers to the girls, though: they always come out on top. Obviously not the sociological, serious stuff here, but we need the straight-up story-telling as well. You'll find something in here you relate to--and probably where you don't expect it.