The Ministry of Thin: How the Pursuit of Perfection Got Out of Control

by Emma Woolf

Overview

We’re obsessed with weight, we dislike our bodies, we worry about the food we eat, we feel guilty, we diet. Too many of us are locked into a war with our own bodies which we’ll never win, and which will never make us happy. The Ministry of Thin takes a controversial, unflinching look at how the modern, international obsession with weight loss, youth, beauty, and perfection has spun out of control. Emma Woolf, author of An Apple a Day, explores how we might all be able to stop hating and start liking our own bodies again. She rallies against the industries of food, health, exercise, beauty, sex, and surgery that seek to create a world that verges on the Orwellian —with the victims of this onslaught trapped and dominated by the societal pressures to conform.

And she dares to ask: if losing weight is the answer, what is the question?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781619023291
Publisher:	Catapult
Publication date:	06/10/2014
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Emma Woolf is the great-niece of Virginia Woolf. After studying English at Oxford University she worked in publishing, before becoming a full-time writer. She is a columnist for The Times and The Daily Beast and also writes for The Independent, The Mail on Sunday, Harper’s Bazaar, Red, Grazia, and Psychologies. She was a co-presenter on BBC Channel 4’s Supersize vs Superskinny; other media appearances include Newsnight, Woman’s Hour, and Radio 4’s Four Thought. Emma’s first book, An Apple a Day: A Memoir of Love and Recovery from Anorexia was shortlisted for the Best Award for Recovery Inspiration. She was also nominated for Mind’s Journalist of the Year. She lives in London.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 The Ministry of Food 15

2 The Ministry of Fat 37

3 The Ministry of Diets 57

4 The Ministry of Detox 73

5 The Ministry of Gym 89

6 The Ministry of Fashion and Beauty 103

7 The Ministry of Sex 121

8 The Ministry of Surgery 135

9 The Ministry of Age 159

10 The Ministry of Madness 179

11 The Ministry of Success 197

Conclusion 217

Acknowledgements 229

Editorial Reviews

02/24/2014
British columnist and former BBC 4 presenter Woolf (An Apple a Day: A Memoir of Love and Recovery from Anorexia) follows up with a critique of the cultural forces that lead women to self-destructive behavior in the pursuit of physical perfection. Describing the messages women receive in terms of “ministries” of thought (the Ministry of Diets, the Ministry of Surgery, the Ministry of Age) Woolf unfortunately proves neither an especially insightful analyst nor a skilled investigator. Still steeped in modern beauty culture (“I find some female grooming procedures acceptable—highlights, laser hair removal, eyebrow threading—whereas Botox, fillers and implants make me mad”), and trying to make peace with the idea of fat (“the best way to look youthful is to not be too thin”), Woolf still buys into thinking of excess weight as immoderate and shameful (“despite having come close to death, I would still choose battling anorexia over battling obesity”). Young women struggling with eating disorders may find Woolf in too much of a different generation to be a role model, and those looking for a feminist ally may find her too tied to the core messages of the culture she critiques. But for readers who need to be gently brought back from unrealistic excess, Woolf may be just the right guide. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Woolf . . . writes about women's addiction to dieting and self-deprecation with eye-opening candor."—More Magazine

"Woolf uses her distinctively conversational voice and nimble sense of humor to keep her arresting insights into our obsession with thinness as well as modern-day feminism and fertility from getting too downbeat. Candid, revealing, and invaluable." —Booklist

From the Publisher

04/01/2014
In her follow-up to An Apple A Day, Woolf derides the food, health, exercise, beauty, and sex industries that create a world in which women hate their bodies. She discusses the proliferation of food programs on television, the ultra-high heels shoe craze, and the prevalence of cosmetic surgeries to fix imperfections. VERDICT While there seems to be no solution to easing society's mandates for women, awareness of the internalized messages from the media offers a good head start, and Woolf provides those insights. An excellent take on a universal "war" on women.

Library Journal

2014-04-02
A thorough analysis of our weight-obsessed culture." Disliking one's body and wanting to be thinner is the new normal," writes British newspaper columnist and BBC TV presenter Woolf (An Apple a Day: A Memoir of Love and Recovery from Anorexia, 2013) in her colloquial scrutiny of contemporary society's fixation on weight, appearance and the desire for outward perfection. She knows this slippery terrain well: Her bracing memoir chronicling a decadelong physical and psychological preoccupation with food is well-referenced here in chapters tackling the many facets of mild to major body dysmorphia. As her great niece, the author quotes Virginia Woolf casually throughout well-researched sections ("ministries") exploring the social connotations and demonizations of food, tedious diets ("the triumph of hope over experience"), fitness, sex and the concept of aging gracefully without the trendiest plastic surgeries. Along the way, she shares her personal indulgences (baked beans and frozen yogurt) and a marked disenchantment with increasing societal (and media) pressures placed on women to look, act, eat and feel a way that is often at odds with their goal of happiness and healthfulness. Less appealing are mildly catty approaches to celebrities like Victoria Beckham, Kate Middleton, Liz Hurley and others; Woolf's angle may prove nettlesome to readers eager for less judgment and more confidence boosting. Of particular interest is the author's presentation of a groundbreaking 1940s food deprivation study, the findings of which offered dramatic insights as to how starvation alters the body and the mind simultaneously. Vividly rendered and creatively explored, Woolf's text encourages nonconformity and individuality on many fronts, even as her burning query remains, "if being thin is the answer, what's the question?"Relevant, engrossing and sure to help liberate those in the throes of a weight battle or lifestyle crisis.

Kirkus Reviews