Unbearable Weight. Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, Tenth Anniversary Edition

Customer Reviews

I feels as though apathy is setting in. (oxymoron?)

2008-04-26
I would say that this book is written from an academic perspective. I could see it being read in an Intro. to Femnist Theory course. That being said I did like this book. It could have been wordy, but it wasn't. I can't say that it wasn't readble. This book was good but I didn't love it. Unbearable Weight did not touch me the same way that some other feminist volumes have. I didn't have the same kind of visceral, electric reaction to it that I've had from other books. That was dissapointing. It was a little bit dry and for some reason felt a little outdated. This review is being written by a high school senior. I am not hoplessly hip or anything but this book just didn't have it's finger on the pulse of the younger feminist community. Not bad but certainly not great.

insightful critique of patriarchy/modern culture/postmodernism

2007-07-01
my favorite aspect of this collection of essays were the ones critiquing the excesses of postmodernism since they encourage a feminism grounded in reality. for instance, she critiques a music video produced by madonna in which she is the object of the voyeur. a postmodernist reviewer admired the film for playing with the boundaries of gender (due to a throwaway moment at the end of the video), but seriously, what is the reaction of normal viewers to the video? it just promotes the objectification of women. bordo acknowledges that race, class, and sexual orientation make it impossible to envision a quintessential female subject, but that power structures in society still impose similar demands of most women and postmodern critiques detract attention from reconstructing the power structures. her essays insightfully critique the media for producing images which encourage the repression of women (for example, images of slenderness, which values a "masculine" domination of the inner will). as a psychology student with faith in the ability of the clinical field to cure, her discussion of anorexia and bulimia as a culturally-driven phenomenon overcame my tendency to classify them as "psychological" problems.

as for her writing style, bordo is straightforward and persuasive. she presents examples to support each of her arguments, and she displays the power of philosophy to address societal concerns instead of being a field ultimately detached from the concerns of the modern subject. i would enthusiastically recommend this collection of essays to everyone.

This book was earthshattering!

2005-04-24
The first time I read Ms. Bordo's book, I was so into it that I didn't get enough sleep that night. This book tells us the brainwashing media and society use to control women as well as to maintain the power elite. If the elite, media or otherwise, didn't use impossibly thin, beautiful, made up blonde women to keep them divided and in control, the whole structure would have collapsed long time ago.

Thanks Ms. Bordo for informing me about this, for I've been in darkness for many years.

Convincing

2003-02-18
The one thing you want to keep in mind when purchasing this book: it's not a light read and it ain't supposed to be. If three syllable words throw you for a loop, stay away. If you feel every fat acceptance book you've read recently has insulted the depth of your intelligence, then read up! At the very least, you can't walk away from this book failing to be convinced that the world at large is at war with our bodies.
Warning: not a feel-good book! You'll be angry and start snapping at your husband, but righteous fury is where change begins.

Brilliant, relevant, a must-read for feminists

2002-08-30
Although a challenging read for me at times, this book was full of "aha!" moments. I think Bordo nails it when it comes to how the issues women's size and appearance are portrayed in the media. I recommend this book highly to other feminists and those interested in media literacy.

Brutally honest, insightful, and most challenging read.

2002-07-27
Revised edition with new preface and foreword.

Brutally honest, insightful, and most challenging read.

2002-07-27
Susan Bordo's "Unbearable Weight" presents a thoroughly researched, well-balanced, detailed and illustrative account of the female postmodern "body politic." Bordo explores myriad concepts of the body juxtaposed against cultural norms and expectations. For Bordo, the body has both natural and cultural meanings, and gender is a social construct defined by men. Anorexia nervosa is simply a "logical" protest reaction against male dominance and the constraints of female sex-role conditioning. No doubt, while women were not chained in the dark shadows of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave," they were, indeed, shackled outside it but silenced. I, too, like these women, was manacled and confined inside the cave of male social conditioning and what it meant to be a man. And I did not find kindred spirits there. What finally emerged outside the cave was a man with eyes without a face with his very own protest and autobiographical "Sisyphus and the Struggle Within" written inside the heart on stone. While the body is, indeed, a heavy "unbearable weight," it can be made light and bearable through conscious self-definition and identity, mental and intellectual transcendence. Though it poses great danger, it takes Sisyphean strength and courage to break free from, and revolt against the barriers of dominant social control and gender inequality.

OVERWEIGHT, INTELLECTUALLY THAT IS.

2002-06-25
Seemingly a random collection of personally motivated opinion, quotation, and "I don't know whut all!" (Shades of Herb Schriner.) Lots of cerebral cellulite though on the whole it carries more meaning than almost all of the Academic/Gender Feminist writings. It is, to be sure, not obscure in the extreme. (Parenthetically, I believe I would like Bordo.) Cheers,

Ed W., PhD. (social philosophy), Chicago 1962; Doktor Rerum Naturum, Freiburg im Breisgau 1965 (like, applied physics dudes)

Fantastic 2000-06-18
Unbearable Weight is a scholarly yet accessible look at the historical and current representation of women in history and in popular culture. It is an excellent look at society's objectification of the female body and the problems that can arise for women because of this objectification.

This book shines not so much as a linear collection of essays but as a reference for people who wish to study the marriage between feminism, western society, and its concentration on the female body. It has helped me to understand the media's role in my relationship with my body and in the amount of control that I have over it. "Unbearable Weight" has also been a great help in my research on this subject.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand Western Cultures objectification of women's bodies through a feminist filter.

See my review of "Twilight Zones," also by Susan Bordo 2000-02-09
Summary:

2/3 good (on body images, eating disorders)

1/3 bad (a terrible, god-awful essay on the purported debate in feminist philosophy)