About this item
Over the past twenty-five years, our quest for thinness has morphed into a relentless obsession with weight and body image. In our culture, "fat" has become a four-letter word. Or, as Lance Armstrong said to the wife of a former teammate, "I called you crazy. I called you a bitch. But I never called you fat." How did we get to this place where the worst insult you can hurl at someone is "fat"? Where women and girls (and increasingly men and boys) will diet, purge, overeat, undereat, and berate themselves and others, all in the name of being thin?As a science journalist, Harriet Brown has explored this collective longing and fixation from an objective perspective; as a mother, wife, and woman with "weight issues," she has struggled to understand it on a personal level.
About the Author
I write about the things that interest me, from the neurobiology of forgiveness to early childhood education. You can find my work in the New York Times Magazine, O, Prevention, and many other publications. My latest book is BODY OF TRUTH: HOW SCIENCE, HISTORY, AND CULTURE DRIVE OUR OBSESSION WITH WEIGHT--AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT. It's the result of five years of research into the complex relationships between weight and health, and some of the surprising and life-changing things I learned in the process. Earlier books include BRAVE GIRL EATING: A FAMILY'S STRUGGLE WITH ANOREXIA, two anthologies (FEED ME! and MR. WRONG) , and THE GOOD-BYE WINDOW: A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A DAY-CARE CENTER. I teach magazine journalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in Syracuse, New York. Find me on Twitter (@HarrietBrown) , Facebook, and at www.harrietbrown.com.
