Scan barcode
A review by bookishheather
Body Outlaws: Young Women Write About Body Image and Identity by Ophira Edut
3.0
Think you're an outcast from society? This book is a series of essays from a vast array of women regarding body image and identity issues. They are transgendered and wheelchaired. They have big butts, big noses, and big mouths. Their skin is too light, too brown, or too pimply. They are inspirational writers, and people.
Nearly every essay had at least a few sentences that I thought were speaking directly to me.
Here's an excerpt from an essay about the author's lifelong hatred for Barbie dolls:
...I now clearly recognize what I only sensed as a child. This "pop artifact" is an icon of Aryanism. Introduced after the second world war, in the conservatism of the Eisenhower era (and rumored to be modeled after a German prostitute by a man who designed nuclear warheads), Barbies, in their "innocent," "apolitical" cutesiness, propagate the ideals of the Third Reich. They ultimately succeed where Hitler failed: they instill in legions of little girls a preference for whiteness, for blond hair, blue eyes and delicate features, for an impossible "überfigure, perched eternally and submissively in high heels. In the Cult of the Blond, Barbies are a cornerstone. They reach the young, and they reach them quickly...
Nearly every essay had at least a few sentences that I thought were speaking directly to me.
Here's an excerpt from an essay about the author's lifelong hatred for Barbie dolls:
...I now clearly recognize what I only sensed as a child. This "pop artifact" is an icon of Aryanism. Introduced after the second world war, in the conservatism of the Eisenhower era (and rumored to be modeled after a German prostitute by a man who designed nuclear warheads), Barbies, in their "innocent," "apolitical" cutesiness, propagate the ideals of the Third Reich. They ultimately succeed where Hitler failed: they instill in legions of little girls a preference for whiteness, for blond hair, blue eyes and delicate features, for an impossible "überfigure, perched eternally and submissively in high heels. In the Cult of the Blond, Barbies are a cornerstone. They reach the young, and they reach them quickly...