A Hunger So Wide And So Deep: A Multiracial View of Women's Eating Problems - Softcover

Thompson, Becky

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816624356 ISBN 13: 9780816624355

Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press, 1996

Synopsis

A new feminist classic--now in paper!

Based on in-depth life history interviews with African-American, Latina, and white women-both lesbian and heterosexual-this book chronicles the effects of racism, sexism, acculturation, and sexual abuse on women’s bodies and eating patterns.

“A wonderful book: gripping, creative and profoundly humane. In lucid prose Thompson offers an original explanation for women’s eating problems. She argues that many women turn to food-bingeing, dieting, purging, or starving- as a sensible means of coping with physical and psychic ‘atrocities’ deriving from ‘racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, the stress of acculturation, and emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.’” Women’s Review of Books

“Surprising and alarming. . . . Thompson urges a second look at our national obsession with weight and proffers theories and practices that could save the lives of women of all colors and sexual orientations.” Lambda Book Report

“Thompson breaks new ground and offers hope for the multitudes of women who have swallowed their pain.” Evelyn C. White, Editor, The Black Women's Health Book

About this title

About the Author

Becky W. Thompson is an assistant professor of sociology at the Center for Research on Women at the University of Memphis and coeditor (with Sangeeta Tyagi) of Beyond a Dream Deferred: Multicultural Education and the Politics of Excellence (Minnesota, 1993).

From the Back Cover

The first of its kind, A Hunger So Wide and So Deep challenges the popular notion that eating problems occur only among white, well-to-do, heterosexual women. Becky W. Thompson shows us how race, class, sexuality, and nationality can shape women's eating problems. Based on in-depth life history interviews with African-American, Latina, and lesbian women, her book chronicles the effects of racism, poverty, sexism, acculturation, and sexual abuse on women's bodies and eating patterns. A Hunger So Wide and So Deep dispels popular stereotypes of anorexia and bulimia as symptoms of vanity and underscores the risks of mislabeling what is often a way of coping with society's own disorders. By featuring the creative ways in which women have changed their unwanted eating patterns and regained trust in their bodies and appetites, Thompson offers a message of hope and empowerment that applies across race, class, and sexual preference.

Reviews

Thompson's look at the motives behind eating disorders draws on interviews with women from a wide range of backgrounds.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0816624356
• ISBN 13: 9780816624355
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 176