Customer Reviews
Unworthy of "American" in its title 
2005-10-02
The Body Project provides very selective leeway into the societal effects of African-American adolescent girls and their personal body projects. The main focus of this book is on the evolution of the white middle-class adolescent girl throughout American history. African-American and Jewish girls are mentioned briefly in a few chapters, while other ethnic groups are simply never discussed. Are these other various ethnic groups not worthy of their equal place in Brumberg's book?
Brumberg focuses on the evolution of the white middle-class female adolescent starting in the early 1800s and ending in the late 1990s. An evolution of the African American adolescent also took place during these times, but differently than that of their white female counterparts.
In order to understand black American adolescents today, foundation for cultural practices must first be established. Brumberg never mentions the coexistence of enslaved blacks, in America during the 18th or 19th centuries.
Though all women have the same biological anatomy, our genes vary, our cultures vary, so we should dispel the idea that when certain groups of women who menstruate earlier than others are abnormal or inferior. Brumberg reveals that this type of thought was well circulated throughout the medical community remained true during the Victorian period. The notion that black health was considered an expendable asset in the American medical community well through the early 1970s.
One major issue that Brumberg avoids is the abuse of children and adolescents. There is probably a close connection between the body projects that adolescents undertake and their harsh self-image.
Brumberg fails to expand on the greater idea that people exist who can never truly choose their identity before it first chooses them. Many girls are intrinsically bound to a stereotype, despite self-image. Possibly everyone has small things that they would like to alter about their physical appearances; however Americans also fail to see these "body projects" as a form a western female mutilation, of which millions of women have fallen victim. Plastic surgery is an ever-growing project that young girls obsess about. This standard idea of beauty that girls manipulate themselves on must disappear, before our individuality as women disappears.
Sad but True 
2005-07-07
This book was referenced in a text that I read regarding teen sexuality, and since the reference sounded interesting I found a copy of it. Brumberg discusses here what she calls the "body projects" of teenage and adult women and how these projects have changed over time. By "body projects" she means what women are focused on changing about themselves at a particular place in history, whether it be the face, the body, or their sexuality. In describing these particular projects the author goes into detail about the history of menarche and menstruation, acne, and the hymen while also discussing the history of the social aspects of virginity and how female sexuality was (and is) perceived and discussed within a family and society.
I really enjoyed reading this book for many reasons. First, it is rare that you can find a well-written social history text that covers such a variety of subjects. Second, the author uses diary entries from women from many different time periods to elucidate her points, and reading the first-person accounts of Victorian women can be very entertaining ("They thought what?!") while also enlightening and educational. Third, the author makes a major point to remind the reader that girls today are maturing earlier in a world filled with sexualized images and messages yet we are denying them education as to how to safely use these new bodies they have developed. She describes how we are doing our girls a disservice by not assisting them with creating their own moral codes and standards, which I very much agree with. I would suggest this book to any woman, especially a woman who has a daughter who is (or will be) a teenager. The dialogues that Brumberg suggests need to happen, and reading this book may spark that realization in all of us.
Intimate and Interesting! 2005-07-02
Joan Jacobs Brumberg's The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls is a fascinating read. As an teacher and researcher on the field of young women and coming of age, I am quite pleased by the wealth of information, both scholarly and anecdotal, I learned from this book. Brumberg fleshes out an in-depth analysis of girls' body projects from the 1800s to the present day and supplements her vast research with diary accounts from young women throughout history.
While I enjoyed this book, I did find a few parts to be undeveloped or perhaps glossed over. I am at odds with Brumberg's analysis in the section on "Pierced Parts." She seems to make rather hasty and unfounded conclusions about the symbolic significance of piercing among teenagers. I did not feel as though Brumberg was informed enough on the piercing phenomenon. On a positive note, this part of the book (and many others) will generate a lot of interesting discussion when I use it in the classroom. We will have to fill in the gaps Brumberg has left behind.
Speaking of gaps, I also wish--but I can certainly understand the limitations and confines of academic research--that Brumberg had devoted more of her book to an analysis of the body projects among non-white women. While she did offer some interesting information on the body projects of African American, Jewish, and Latina women, I found myself aching for more than just a few token pages.
The topic of women and their bodies has long been a benchmark of feminist inquiry and discussion. Brumberg's contribution to this topic, and her conceptualization of it as "the body project," provides new insight into an old yet persistent problem in our society. A fascinating and highly recommended read.
A Good Read 2005-04-25
In her book, Brumberg recognizes the struggles that young women go through in order to feel accepted in society, and discusses a variety of body projects ranging from acne troubles to anorexia. I think that most women today have felt the pressure that is driving them to make their bodies perfect, and therefore can relate their own lives directly to the situations that are presented. I found it interesting to read about the lives of many Victorian girls that had had problems so similar to my own and how they confronted those problems in very different ways. I found this book to be very informative and although it contained captivating information, Brumberg continually repeated her earlier thoughts in later chapters. I thought that she could have added more depth to her commentary to make her work a stronger piece of literature.
Not what the Title Promised 
2004-12-29
I read this book expecting what the title promised: An Intimate History of American Girls. While it has much fascinating historical data, Brumberg's interjections of her own opinions about modern parenting and sex education is annoying. She generalizes all American girls, giving the impression they're a mass of promiscuous, immature girls who don't have Mommy figures that need to be rescued from the images of mass media. While many girls have these problems, she only once mentions the other half of girls who graduate from High School as virgins.
Also, her history starts at about 1820, about two hundred years late. I'm sure people would find it interesting to know Pilgrim women wore nothing during menstrutation, at the end of the day they just cleaned down there. (Doctors have speculated that due to diet differences, their periods were extremely light.)
This book is good if you're looking for parenting tips about modern girls and you don't mind the preaching.
If you want a real history read American Women by Gail Collins. It barely touches modern girls/women, but unlike this book, it lives up to it's title.
I would have given this book 4 stars, but I minus one for the misleading title.
Unfulfilled Potential 
2008-04-16
The Body Project does shed some insight into a narrow group of American girls, primarily focusing on how life has evolved over the past 2 centuries for white, middle class adolescents. It is now, itself, though, a dated book. Internet and media's impact on "Our Girls" have left this book in the dust. While it still may be read for Brumberg's personal perspective into the transformation out of the Victorian mentality, and through the sexual and feminism movements of the 1900's, the book is neither objective nor very relelvent to our country's diverse cultural makeup today. Unfortunately, from the time I read the title, through each chapter subtitle, I was left with unfulfilled expecations. Nevertheless, I am happy to at least walk away with interesting tidbits on commercialization of menstrual products, bras, and even the historical preoccupation with hymens.
Understanding a Cultural Obsession 
2007-04-23
Topic: - The book is the author's historical perspective, suggesting there are ever increasing visual evaluations and body standards being placed on American Girls.
Commentary: - The book does an excellent job of bringing attention to the messages girls are constantly bombarded with from all forms of media, advertising and cultural rules, messages that try to persuade them their body should have certain attributes and not have other attributes. It outlines how with each new generation, new social visual ideals are added. From shaving legs, to waxing, to eyebrow control, to hairstyles, to overall weight, to muscle tone, to bad breath, to body odor, to feminine hygeine, to piercings, to tattoos, to teeth straightening, to belly button length, to breast shape, to teeth whitening, and on and on.
Writing Style: - I thought the premise and supporting facts of this book were excellent, but if I have to fault one aspect of the book, it is that the writing sometimes lost my attention - this occurred even though I greatly care about the issues discussed in the book.
What would have made this book better?: - There is an inherent conflict in these issues: How do you make "not being a pawn to these social pressures" interesting and sexually attractive? One of the main draws that advertisers and social forces use is: IF you perfectly control your body and develop these many attributes, THEN you'll be more well liked, treated better, more in control, or more sexually attractive. For the book to have been even better, it needed to spend more time promoting non-conformist beauty ideals and conceptual frameworks.
In other words, it needed to do more to show how NOT persuing a "body perfect" can lead to better social relationships, understanding, attractiveness, etc. It's not enough to tell a person, "Don't do that." It's better to show them how alternative paths can produce more fulfilling and better outcomes. This is because women are constantly bombarded with the opposing messages of: "Make your body perfect" and you will receive _____ (fill in the blank).
Why did I write this review?: - I read this book about a year ago, and I didn't feel compelled to write a review. But one of the attributes of a great idea or a great book of ideas is the longer the ideas are considered in your brain (the more evidence and scenarios you evaluate using those ideas), the more those ideas resonate with 'truth' or significance.
Like most people, I use the internet often. I'm just sickened by the frequency of visual beauty ads. From wrinkle creams, to Stry-Vectyn, to Bo-Tox, to acne-fighters, and every other blemish or age-fighting cream, lotion, or potion. The same messages are coming from T.V.
Dove has launched a "Real Beauty" campaign, where they show women with "non-ideal" body types and weight ranges. And while I can admire some of the premise, which is: "Beauty is broader than the narrow definitions of supemodel advertising," I am also saddened as Dove, a cosmetic company, has also introduced the suggestion: Older women and non-ideal women need to spend more money on our beauty products. Olay's campaign of "Fight crows feet . . . on your elbows and your legs" is creating additional Body Projects for women to be concerned about.
Given the constant messages and pressures American women receive, I expect most women have dealt with an eating disorder or OCD mindset about their physical appearance. After reading this book, I admire every woman who has managed to overcome our culture's body obsession and who has found a way to moderate their eating habits and perceptions of their body.
I recommend at least scanning this book to find any topics of interest. Hopefully, young women who have read this book will be more able to recognize the unnecessary demands and often unreachable standards being asked of them. Hopefully they will learn to define their beauty, and the beauty of the women around them, using more non-body-defined benchmarks.
Fabulous 2007-04-04
This book was the best non-fiction I have ever read. It details the changing attitudes towards girls' bodies from the Victorian era to now. It's a sad, hard truth, but opens readers' eyes to the stark reality of girls' bodies going from prime real estate -joint owners being parents and the future husband- to nothing but over-sexed, under nourished, under appreciated, and under protected citizens of society.
This book is a wonderful chronicle of the changes in physical appearance, as well as mental status, in the ever-changing world of girls in society.
Fair Attempt to Explain a Growing Problem 2006-06-09
I bought this book because I see how girls/young women stuggle to achieve a very unrealistic ideal of beauty and how middle aged women stuggle to hang on to what they had as young women. As I approach 50, I know I am expected to stay trim, fit and muscular in spite of the fact that my body struggles mightly against it, especially since pregnancy and child birth.
As for the book, it is heavily researched and some of that research does involve journals from the 19th century and beyond. The first chapter is about how girls' bodies are maturing at a much faster rate than those of their fore sisters and the implications of this. Interesting.
The second chapter covers menstruation and menarche in detail. It is really too long. The basic premise of the chapter is how menarche has become consumerized. Mothers provide their daughters with all the mass manufactured equipment and not much else. The author wants menarche to be explained to girls as the time they enter womanhood, but I have a problem with this for two reasons. #1 Most girls are entering menarche at a time when they are not even remotely ready to be women. #2 When I enter menopause, am I exiting womanhood?
The third chapter covers the quest for perfect skin. It is page after page covering the subject of acne and how it has been dealt with over the past century. This, also, the author feels has been very much consumerized, as mothers take their daughters to the doctors and buy any and every cream and potion to relieve their daughters' agony.
The fourth chapter deals with the history of girls trying to achieve the perfect body and the fifth with the disappearance of virginity and how women have gained sexual freedom, but this has also filtered down to girls in middle school and high school and most of these girls and young women are ill equipped mentally and emotionally to deal with the ramifications of their sexuality.
The overall ideals in the book are excellent. The fact that girls have lost their closeness with mothers, aunts, teachers and other female role models. The fact that most of their learning comes from the media and girls their own ages. The fact that outward beauty is what females are judged by rather than beauty that comes from inside. The fact that girls are no longer protected through the family unit. They are sexually active earlier and earlier and often with older men and not boys of their own age. They have been sold the goods of freedom and independence when they are really not ready for them, etc.
Unfortunately, the book did not so much back up these ideas, but more harped on consumerism...the buying of feminine products, make up, clothes, etc. I am pretty sure this is but I small part of the problem.
Why "beautiful on the inside" doesn't seem to matter anymore 2006-01-19
What happened to American girls, to women, over the past hundred years, that caused a quantum shift in how they present themselves to the world?
Intelligence, spirituality, charity and volunteerism, and skills for all things domestic were once revered. The most popular girl in her class wasn't the prettiest girl. The girl considered best for marriage had the qualities desired for a wife and mother and not what she looked like on her husband's arm.
We are all victims of this shift.
I admit I first noticed this book on a shelf in a train-station bookstore because of the flat, tanned belly on the cover. We've become a society obsessed with pieces and parts and appearances of the pieces and parts rather than the beauty of the whole person. Our self-esteem is measured by the numbers on the scale or the size of our jeans or the clarity of our skin.
Over the past six years, I've reread this book a few times, and always find a new point that rings true.
In her revealing (yet not surprising) sociological history Blumberg uses the best and most frank sources to illustrate her case: the private diaries of young women, from the Victorian era to present day (the late 90's). Blumberg theorizes that it's the media and consumerism that are the biggest contributors to the shift and uses excerpts from the diaries to make her point.
Blumberg focuses on middle-class Caucasian girls circa 1998, and perhaps the book needs an update to focus on a broader demographic as well as address the influence of the internet which has since become an increasingly important factor in the socialization and self-awareness of young women.
I think this is a decent book for a teenage girl, but I'm not sure it will have much of a positive influence. Girls are constantly being fed about how they should look and what products they should buy to achieve beauty.
It's a better book for a woman in her 20's or 30's who might want a better understanding of why we've become the way we are.
