Body Shots Book Report

In her book, Body Shots: Hollywood and the Culture of Eating Disorders, Emily Fox-Kales, a clinical psychologist with a strong background in the treatment of eating disorders, which includes bulimia, anorexia, binge eating, OSFED, EDNOS, and PICA, as well as body dysmorphia disorder describes the strong impact media has on women’s perceptions of themselves and displays the evolution of eating disorders through firsthand accounts. Fox-Kales describes society’s current culture as “the culture of eating disorders” (1). She points out that women no longer exchange recipes, but rather share a fear of food as well as diet tips and tricks to reduce weight. She continues to explain that “food has become more taboo than sex ever was and the bathroom scale more challenging a confrontation than the confessional booth” (1). Our culture has engorged the minds of women young and old with diets that are taken too far and become problematic.

Richard Dyer, a film scholar, points out that “your ideas about who you are don’t just come from inside you; they come from the culture. And in this culture they come especially from the movies. We learn from the movies what it means to be a man or woman” (3). Movies and media, such as newspapers, magazines and television, instruct women that in order to express femininity one

It centered around a group of cheerleaders. They all had really thin sculpted bodies. The entire movie they wore either really small tight tank tops or sports bras or tiny shorts. I have been a hockey player my entire life and because of weight training I have always been bulked up especially in the legs. This movie made me very insecure about my body. I felt like I looked too boyish; although I appeared strong I wasn’t a ‘girly’ type of strong. This was the first time I ever felt dissatisfied with my body. Since then I have gone through stages in my life where I binge and purge to try to get smaller”