Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (54 page)

Masculinity, 27;

and ambiguity, 29394;

anorectics and, 15557, 17174, 17879, 20911, 309n.48, 324n.79;

and bodybuilding, 179, 211;

construction of, 174, 219;

context and, 24;

hypervaluation of, 64;

of institutions, 42;

muscles and, 19395; myth of, 339n.43; norms for, 48;

professionals and, 171, 23233, 309n.48;

and rights, 219;

and selfmanagement, 195, 205, 20912;

Victorian, 50;

of women eating, 110 Masson, Jeffrey, 327n.117

Masturbation, as sexual abuse, 16162 Material body, 16, 38, 24546

"Material Girl," 245, 26575

Materialism, feminist, 231

"Maternal body," 291

Maternal power, 208

"Maternal" work, 12324

M. Butterfly,
293 Meaning:

and homogenized imagery, 26; medical model and, 6667, 69;

of slenderness, 26, 46, 57, 170;

textualization and, 38;

transformation of, 168 Meat, and sex, 317n.7 Media, 321n.12;

and "difference," 259;

and eating disorders, 4546, 47, 186;

ideal woman of, 16364, 182;

Madonna, 268, 269, 27274;

misogynist, 11617, 235, 27475;

and sex, 287.

See also
Advertisements; Magazines; Movies; Television Medical establishment:

and body as machine, 245;

and eating disorders, 4954, 55, 57, 61, 6469, 319n.3, 320n.9;

and hysteria, 46, 5051, 67, 158, 169, 175, 180, 327n.117, 331n.28;

and informed consent, 7380;

and New Reproductive Technologies, 39, 8687;

nineteenth century, 5051, 64, 158, 16162, 169;

and poor, 75 77, 8384;

and pregnant women, 7587, 31116;

sexuality medicalized, 14243, 16162.

See also
Cosmetic surgery; Freud, Sigmund; Pathology Men, 137, 143, 21920;

academics, 337n.9;

as active spirits, 1215, 90;

African American, 9, 11, 125, 23536, 237, 286;

appearance of, 166, 204, 329n.4, 334n.24;

dominance of, 29, 3637, 262;

eating in advertisements, 10810, 122, 134;

eating disorders among, 46, 5253, 128, 329n.6; at eating disorders conference, 4749;

eating and women preparing, 11727; and fashion, 22;

and female desire management, 20412; food preparation by, 11921, 13132;

and labor division, 71, 11727;

male gaze, 268, 27374; media influence on, 4546; men's movement, 28;

"not getting it," 239;

nurtured by mother, 32627; objectified, 118;

and oppressor/oppressed model, 23, 28; poststructuralist conceptions by, 96;

in public domain, 42, 11718, 134;

and sexual harassment hearings, 23940; and sexuality of food, 11012;

and slenderness of partners, 64, 15455, 204, 334n.24;

sterilized involuntarily, 76;

U.S. Senate, 240;

women as "new," 17174;

and women as "too much," 32627.

See also
Boyfriends; Fathers; Masculinity; Patriarchy

Men on Rape
(Beneke), 67

Menopause, carrying baby after, 39, 304n.42 Menstruation, anorectics and, 207

"Mentally defective," involuntary sterilization of, 7576 Metaphors, 165, 28889, 308n.44

Metaphysics: anorexia as, 147;

and body as machine, 245; of culture, 41, 72

Metropolitan Life Insurance tables, 154, 334n.25 "Microcosm"/"Macrocosm," 186

"Micropractises," 17, 18 Middle Ages:

fasting in, 185;

female food preparation in, 118 Middle class:

dieting, 185;

female disorders, 118, 157, 16768, 177;

nineteenth century, 157, 185, 19192;

postWorld War II, 159, 208;

and social symbolism of body weight/ size, 19193.

See also
Yuppies Mill, John Stuart, 15758 Miller, Nancy, 31617n.77 Millett, Kate, 163

Millman, Marcia, 202

Milton, John, 88

Mindbody dualism, 25, 1115;

active spiritpassive body, 1115, 90; and eating disorders, 14454; feminism and, 5, 1516;

fitness exercise and, 15152; gendered, 1115, 21112;

law and, 73;

and Madonna, 275

Minute Rice, 133 Miracle Whip Light, 126 Misogyny:

and hunger as sexuality, 11617;

and public sexual harassment / rape cases, 235, 23637; songs, 27475

Miss America, 19, 45, 324n.76 Miss Soviet Union, 103 Mitchell, S. Weir, 66, 158, 180

Mitchie, Helena, 183

Modernism, 96, 227, 277, 280;

of Foucault, 38;

social criticism, 242.

See also
Cartesianism Modernity, postmodernism and, 27778 Mohr, Richard, 3536

Moi, Toril, 180, 231

Monroe, Marilyn, 141, 208

Montesquieu, 88 Morality:

and bodily invasion, 31213n.31; of body mastery, 15, 68, 19297.

See also
Will Morgan, Kim, 20911

Morris, Jan, 294

Morrison, Toni, 41

Mothers, 7197;

and eating disorders, 45, 47, 64, 156;

evil, 83, 95;

feminism and, 23031;

in films, 117;

ideal, 118;

maternal power, 208;

nurturing children, 32627n.109; selfdenial by, 118, 318n.15; surrogate, 94.

See also
Pregnant women Movies:

bodily eruption in, 189; body transcended in, 39; femininity in, 16970;

hunger as sexuality in, 110, 11617; and mastery of body/self, 19597; and plasticity of bodies, 39;
Pumping Iron,
153;

slasher, 117

Ms.
magazine, 182, 21516

Multiplicity, postmodern, 28687

Muscles, 24, 28, 191, 19395, 324n.76.

See also
Bodybuilding

N

Nagel, Thomas, 217, 219 "Narrow circle of the self," 220 Nathanson, Barnard, 85

National Right to Life Committee, 88

Native Son
(Wright), 275 "Natural":

body, 142, 26970, 288;

sexuality, 289, 29091, 292, 294 Nature:

"mirrorings" of, 21819, 227, 229;

natureculture duality, 3336, 195.

See also
"Natural" Nelson, Lawrence J., 81, 87

Neurasthenia, 168, 169

New England Journal of Medicine,
76, 80

New Hope for Binge Eaters
(Pope & Hudson), 52

Newly Born Woman
(Clement), 175 Newman, Esther, 29394

New Reproductive Technologies, 39, 8687

Newsday,
65

Newsweek,
34

New York,
151

New York Center for the Study of Anorexia and Bulimia, 45, 47, 6061, 140 New York Deli Potato Chips, 129

New York Herald,
327n.118

New York Times,
287

Nicholson, Linda, 22122, 22324, 337n.18

Nietzsche, Friedrich, 218, 22223, 229

Nike ads, 207, 296

Nineteenth century.
See
Industrialization; Victorian culture / Nineteenth century Nolte, Nick, 154

Norms, 2532, 62, 263;

beauty, 2930, 63, 25155, 29798;

body function, 34;

body weight, 64;

dieting, 186;

exercise, 186;

female body, 16667, 2089;

femininity, 48, 16869;

Madonna and, 26970;

male, 21620;

masculinity, 48;

and pathology, 49, 54, 186;

plastic bodies and, 25051, 25455;

resistance to, 29598;

slenderness, 2024 Nurturing, female:

breasts with thin limbs and, 335n.33;

feeding others, 11727, 12930, 171, 326n.109; with macho prowess and control, 173;

mothers' childrearing and, 32627n.109; romanticization of, 233;

and selffeeding, 12526, 130, 171

O

Obesity.
See
Overweight Objectification:

epistemological, 4, 21819;

of men, 118;

politics of, 332n.40; professional women and, 241;

of women / female body, 118, 182, 26774.

See also
Gaze Obsession:

femininity, 180;

food, 100102, 126;

hunger, 146;

slenderness, 15960.

See also
Compulsion

Obsession
(Chernin), 3233, 45, 137, 320n.11 "Ode to Mother" (Poloquin), 118

O'Keeffe, Georgia, 21516

Omolade, Barbara, 22

O'Neill, Cherry Boone, 148, 155

"On the Subjection of Women" (Mill), 157

"Open Your Heart to Me" (Madonna), 27274, 294 Oppression:

of female body, 16667; oppressor/oppressed model, 2331, 97; by "tyranny of slenderness," 141

Orbach, Susie, 305n.4, 332n.40; and anorexia as protest, 176;

at eating disorders conference (1983), 4749;

feminist/cultural analysis, 3233, 54;

Hunger Strike,
3233, 305n.4;

and oneself as "too much," 32627; and psychic values of anorectics, 180

Otherness, 96, 22933.

See also
"Difference" Overweight, 4, 154;

African American, 103; anorexia coexistent with, 201; fear of, 14041;

and norms, 2034;

social attitudes toward, 2012; and will, 19293;

women feeling, 154, 204, 334n.25.

See also
Fleshiness; Weight loss

P

Paltrow, Lynn, 80

Pankhursts, 157

Pappenheim, Berthe ("Anna O."), 158 Paradigm shift, 288

Parents:

and eating disorders, 45, 47, 64, 149, 156, 178.

See also
Fathers; Mothers Parker, Dorothy, 160, 164 Parody, drag as, 29294

Parton, Dolly, 335n.33 Passivity:

vs. active spirit, 1115, 90;

Madonna and, 26869;

of medical patient's body, 67; and reproductive rights, 90

Pathology, 141;

as crystallization of culture, 13964;

eating disorders as, 4866 passim, 140, 175, 18586;
‌

of protest, 6465, 15960, 175 Patriarchy:

and female hunger, 68; Madonna and, 268, 274;

and muteness of hysteric, 17677; and "not getting it," 239.

See also
Dominance, male Pearson, Durk, 153

Penis, animality symbolized by, 4 Penn, Sean, 269

Pennsylvania State Senate, 8889

People,
advertisements, 100

Pepper, Chili, 29394

Perceptual/cognitive models, of eating disorders, 4546, 5460 Perfectionism, 149, 15152, 331n.28

"Performance," gender as, 28994 Personality: construction of, 199202.

See also
Hysteria; Self "Personal politics," 1718, 338n.30 Personhood:

fetal, 87, 95;

of women, 72, 79, 94, 312n.24 Peters, Joan, 37, 304n.40

Phaedo
(Plato), 3, 144

Philosophy and Feminist Thinking
(Grimshaw), 337n.11
Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature
(Rorty), 21819
Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth,
90 Plasticity:

body, 38, 39, 24558;

discourse, 25865;

Madonna's, 27273;

as paradigm of postmodernism, 24546.

See also
Cosmetic changes Plato, 34, 34, 14445, 147, 165

Playboy,
45

"Plight of Black Men" (Dyson), 286 Pluralism:

duality in, 23343; television as plastic, 258.

See also
"Difference"; Heterogeneity PMS, 3637

Page 355

Page 356

Politics, 3233, 219;

anorectics and, 159, 176; of appearance, 303n.30;

of body, 1523, 139, 288, 300;

Body Politic, 21, 34;

"correct," 221;

and "difference," 263;

erotic, 26768;

of female disorders, 16869; "personal," 1718, 338n.30;

and plastic bodies, 25153, 257;

of sexualization and objectification, 332n.40; of subjectivity, 7197;

talk shows and, 25859.

See also
Feminism; Racism; Sexism "Politics of Housework" (Mainardi), 18 Pollitt, Katha, 8384

Poloquin, Bud, 118

"Polyhedron of intelligibility," 32 "Polyphonic vocality," 285 "Polyvocality," 338n.30

Poor, medical establishment and, 75 77, 8384

Pope, Harrison, 52

"Possible Causes of the Thin Standard of Bodily Attractiveness for Women" (Silverstein), 17879 Post cereal ad, 110

Poster, Mark, 17778

Postmodernism, 15, 31, 32, 191, 21530, 242, 277300, 31617;

academic, 240, 260, 263, 27883;

celebratory, 29496;

conversation, 25865;

and "cultural dopes," 3034n.34;

deconstructionist, 21718, 22530, 262, 27374, 28289;

defined, 38;

effacements of culture of, 24575; embodied, 40, 213, 22730, 277300;

feminist, 31, 21730, 240, 279300;

logic of, 333n.7;

Madonna as heroine of, 38, 26575;

multiplicity, 28687;

plasticity as paradigm of, 24546;

resistance, 38, 261, 262, 26570, 272, 277300;

subjects, 26775, 277300;

and transcendence, 3740, 227

Poststructuralism, 15, 40, 96, 27879, 28889, 336n.3; Continental, 337n.11;

and "decentering" the subject, 283, 285;

and "difference," 38, 40, 21718, 223, 285; feminism and, 17, 332n.40;

Flax and, 281, 283, 285;

of Foucault, 17, 38, 40, 217, 332n.40, 336n.3;

hooks and, 283;

and liberal humanism, 242; and politics of body, 17, 18

Power:

"axis of continuity," 142, 14344, 15464, 321n.14;

constitutive, 16768;

and "difference," 26068, 299300;

female disorders and, 142, 14344, 15464, 17780;

Foucault and, 2628, 29, 38, 14344, 167, 240, 26162, 288, 295;

Madonna and, 272, 27374;

maternal, 2089;

physicalbody as instrument and medium of, 14344, 179; and resistance, 38, 261, 262, 26568, 295;

selfmanagement, 20912;

television and, 26062.

See also
Authority; Control; Dominance; Oppression; Politics Powerlessness, of anorexia, 154

Practices:

vs. beliefs, 16566;

body, 18084, 27071;

of femininity, 16566, 181;

historically developed, 41;