Our society is not kind to women when it comes to body image. Most women feel there’s something “wrong” with their bodies: too thin or too chubby, lips not alluring enough, too short or too tall, the curse of “combination skin.” As you can imagine, the whole issue of ideal beauty is infinitely more difficult for a fashion model. Crystal Renn’s story begins with starvation. In order to become a model at 14, she lost 70 pounds. Crystal moves to New York City and develops anorexia and exercise bulimia to keep her body within modeling tolerances. But Crystal’s health suffers: her hair starts falling out and she experiences heart palpitations. HUNGRY is a true story of the balance between ambition and health. As someone who has a love affair with food, I could relate to Crystal’s situation and her eventual solution to her problems. This is a surprisingly insightful book. GRADE: B+
Any excuse to put beautiful women on your blog, right? Seriously, I don’t know one woman who is happy with their body. That’s why we buy so many shoes. Size doesn’t matter much.
My daughter has a shoe fetish, Patti. In the MARKETING course I teach, I talk about how advertising is aimed at making women feel bad about their bodies. Then, of course, there are products to “fix” the problem. Somehow, men are less affected.
I’ve always been a fan of plus-size models! There’s a great site with many images of Crystal and other plus-size models here:
http://www.judgmentofparis.com/
They’re all gorgeous.
The site’s forum also has thought-provoking discussions about body image and the media.
Thanks for the link, Lois!
Two covers? I wonder why? I also wonder who the target audience is for this book. The covers make me think they want men to buy, but the subject seems almost exclusive to women. I have never, ever understood the shoe thing. Shoes are like tools, they exist to cover and protect the feet, and to serve, in some situations, as an indicator of compliance with codes (those wing-tips the up-and-coming exec. wears). But I have never understood how or why a shoe is considered fashion. Except shoes are so considered, by women. With rare exceptions, I don’t think most men even notice.
Hannibal Lechter certainly noticed shoes, Rick. You’ll have to ask Patti or my daughter to explain the importance of shoes to you. I’m as befuddled as you are.
That’s because you’re a guy, Rick. Most of us think like you. My wife buys way too many shoes too. She even bought them on her recent Girls Gone Wild trip to Vegas.
On my trips to Vegas, I saw some incredible shoe stores, Jeff. I’m sure Jackie and the Girls Gone Wild crew found them irresistible.