Synopsis
Step Aside Barbie! You re Blocking My View... Of Me! Women and Body Image in North America, is an important book for any woman who struggles daily with negative body image. How can you accept yourself as you are when you are constantly bombarded with images of an accepted beauty ideal that idolizes youth, rejects aging, worships perfect beauty and thinness, and despises fat? How can you love yourself when billion dollar industries (beauty, fashion, fitness, diet, entertainment, cosmetic surgery) have convinced you that you are inadequate as you are? How do you resist being seduced by the idea that you can buy your way to acceptance? If you believe what you read and see in the media, then supposedly all you need to do is just try harder (and keep buying products) and you can eventually turn yourself into a supermodel. But how do you copy a beauty standard that is more fiction than fact? Female body image obsession is reaching epidemic proportions. Little girls are dieting, teenagers with eating disorders are literally dying to fit in, and adult and aging women are struggling beneath the weight of expectations that demand we be beautiful and desirable until the day we die-- no matter what our age, no matter what the cost. Despite how far we ve come, women of all ages continue to hate their bodies. Step Aside Barbie! is an easy to read book that tackles a heavy topic using personal experience, honesty, humor, and a ton of common sense. In the author s words: ...to the homely little black girl that was me roughly 40 years ago, Barbie was, without a doubt, the prettiest white girl I had ever seen and I wanted to look just like her when I grew up, so... I spent about 25 years trying to turn myself into a copy of her. Of course, I never succeeded but not for lack of trying." In her latest book, Suzann Kingston gets up close and personal about a topic that millions of women around the world can relate to -- negative body image. Short chapters like-- Stare and Compare / Am I Thin Yet? / the I Hate My Body, I Hate Myself club / Throw Out The Damn Scale! / Barbie Envy / I Do Not Have A Model s Figure-- not only give the reader a lot to think about and do, but also encourages self-acceptance (rather than self-rejection) as a way of life because there is more at stake here than the size of our thighs. Suzann Kingston is one of a growing number of women concerned about the damage being done in the name of beauty and she is determined to do her part to help change things for the better. In her words... "We need to stop believing that the impossible is possible, that lasting success is just a 'quick fix' away, that our self-worth can somehow be measured by the size, shape, and look of our faces and bodies, and that the 'beauty' business has our best interests (and not the contents of our wallets) at heart. It's time to start celebrating what we already are instead of obsessing over what we are not. We need to start feeling better about that woman in our mirror because she's got places to go, things to do, dreams to dream and goals to accomplish. But as long as we are holding her back, pushing her down, beating her up... well then, she won't be going anywhere. And that's a damn shame! It's time to let go of the old ways that do more harm than good. It's time to flaunt our own unique brands of beauty. And it's time to embrace and celebrate the beauty in all women!
About the Author
Suzann Kingston is currently working on her fourth non-fiction book. She writes about what intrigues her most -- people. She admits that human nature and how we all live and connect in the world is what fuels her need to write. Her goal is to motivate and empower those who read her books. In her words... More than anything, I want to give people something to think about. And when they start to think, perhaps they will realize they possess the power of choice and the ability to make things happen (good and bad) - in their lives. And while knowledge is also power, to know yourself is empowering. The goal of my books is to help people know themselves better.
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