07001nam 2200709Ia 450 991095510540332120200520144314.09780674041547067404154210.1515/9780674041547(CKB)1000000000786740(StDuBDS)AH23050823(SSID)ssj0000153658(PQKBManifestationID)11147440(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000153658(PQKBWorkID)10393327(PQKB)10878283(Au-PeEL)EBL3300344(CaPaEBR)ebr10315849(OCoLC)923110637(DE-B1597)574304(DE-B1597)9780674041547(MiAaPQ)EBC3300344(OCoLC)1262308416(Perlego)1148453(EXLCZ)99100000000078674019991122d2000 uy 0engur|||||||||||txtrdacontentcrdamediacrrdacarrierFat talk what girls and their parents say about dieting /Mimi Nichter1st ed.Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press20001 online resource (xi, 263 pages)Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph9780674002296 0674002296 9780674006812 067400681X Includes bibliographical references (p. [225]-251) and index.Preface Introduction: Barbie and Beyond 1. In the Presence of the Perfect Girl 2. Fat Talk 3. Are Girls Really Dieting? 4. Who Will I Look Like? 5. Mothers, Daughters, and Dieting 6. Looking Good Among African-American Girls 7. What We Can Do Appendix A: Research Strategies Appendix B: Tables Notes Acknowledgments IndexSurveys show that half of American teen-aged girls are dieting and many are at risk from eating disorders. This text examines differences between the black and white subjects interviewed and the issues that mothers face in raising healthy daughters.They hate their thighs. They binge and purge. They want a perfect body. These are the American girls we've heard about in report after report--surveys telling us that half of all teen-aged girls are dieting at any given time, and suggesting that many of them are "at risk" for eating disorders. But what do these statistics really mean? How do girls think about their bodies, their appearance, their culture? In Fat Talk the girls answer for themselves. The result of a study that followed hundreds of teen-aged girls for three years, this book brings to light the subtleties, the complexities, and the realities of girls' ideas about their shapes, their eating habits, and their physical ideals. Anthropologist Mimi Nichter uses an engaging narrative style to explore the influence of peers, family, and media on girls' sense of self. In extensive excerpts from interviews, we hear how these girls differ from those we encounter in surveys. In particular, despite widespread dissatisfaction with one aspect or another of their bodies, the girls did not diet so much as talk about dieting. "Fat talk," Nichter wryly argues, is a kind of social ritual among friends, a way of establishing solidarity. Fat Talk reveals some differences between the black and white subjects Nichter interviewed--not just in matters of weight and appearance, but also in the mother-daughter relationship that seemed to powerfully influence a girl's self-image. Moving beyond the stereotypes of such relationships, Nichter examines the issues and struggles that mothers face in bringing up healthy daughters today--and suggests how we might help girls move beyond punishing images of ideal beauty. Teen-aged girls hate their bodies and diet obsessively, or so we hear. News stories and reports of survey research often claim that as many as three girls in five are on a diet at any given time, and they grimly suggest that many are "at risk" for eating disorders. But how much can we believe these frightening stories? What do teenagers mean when they say they are dieting? Anthropologist Mimi Nichter spent three years interviewing middle school and high school girls--lower-middle to middle class, white, black, and Latina--about their feelings concerning appearance, their eating habits, and dieting. In Fat Talk , she tells us what the girls told her, and explores the influence of peers, family, and the media on girls' sense of self. Letting girls speak for themselves, she gives us the human side of survey statistics. Most of the white girls in her study disliked something about their bodies and knew all too well that they did not look like the envied, hated "perfect girl' But they did not diet so much as talk about dieting. Nichter wryly argues-in fact some of the girls as much as tell her-that "fat talk" is a kind of social ritual among friends, a way of being, or creating solidarity. It allows the girls to show that they are concerned about their weight, but it lessens the urgency to do anything about it, other than diet from breakfast to lunch. Nichter concludes that if anything, girls are watching their weight and what they eat, as well as trying to get some exercise and eat "healthfully" in a way that sounds much less disturbing than stories about the epidemic of eating disorders among American girls. Black girls, Nichter learned, escape the weight obsession and the "fat talk" that is so pervasive among white girls. The African-American girls she talked with were much more satisfied with their bodies than were the white girls. For them, beauty was a matter of projecting attitude ("'tude") and moving with confidence and style. Fat Talk takes the reader into the lives of girls as daughters, providing insights into how parents talk to their teenagers about their changing bodies. The black girls admired their mothers' strength; the white girls described their mothers' own "fat talk," their fathers' uncomfortable teasing, and the way they and their mothers sometimes dieted together to escape the family "curse"--flabby thighs, ample hips. Moving beyond negative stereotypes of mother-daughter relationships, Nichter sensitively examines the issues and struggles that mothers face in bringing up their daughters, particularly in relation to body image, and considers how they can help their daughters move beyond rigid and stereotyped images of ideal beauty.Teenage girlsNutritionReducing dietsObesity in adolescenceBody image in adolescenceTeenage girlsNutrition.Reducing diets.Obesity in adolescence.Body image in adolescence.613.25083520973Nichter Mimi1807691MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910955105403321Fat talk4357555UNINA