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Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa
An acclaimed classic from the award-winning author of The Body Project presents a history of women's food-refusal dating back as far as the sixteenth century, providing compassion to victims and their families.
Here is a tableau of female medieval martyrs who used starvation to demonstrate religious devotion, "wonders of science" whose families capitalized on their ability to survive on flower petals and air, silent screen stars whose strict "slimming" regimens inspired a generation. Here, too, is a fascinating look at how the cultural ramifications of the Industrial Revolution produced a disorder that continues to render privileged young women helpless. Incisive, compassionate, illuminating, Fasting Girls offers real understanding to victims and their families, clinicians, and all women who are interested in the origins and future of this complex, modern and characteristically female disease.
Here is a tableau of female medieval martyrs who used starvation to demonstrate religious devotion, "wonders of science" whose families capitalized on their ability to survive on flower petals and air, silent screen stars whose strict "slimming" regimens inspired a generation. Here, too, is a fascinating look at how the cultural ramifications of the Industrial Revolution produced a disorder that continues to render privileged young women helpless. Incisive, compassionate, illuminating, Fasting Girls offers real understanding to victims and their families, clinicians, and all women who are interested in the origins and future of this complex, modern and characteristically female disease.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
63 people are currently reading
3947 people want to read
About the author
Joan Jacobs Brumberg
11 books45 followersJoan Jacobs Brumberg is a Professor Emerita of Cornell University, where she has been teaching history, human development and gender studies since 1979. Brumberg lectures and writes about the experiences of adolescents throughout history until the present day.
In the subject area of Gender Studies, she has written both about boys and violence, and girls and body image.
Joan lectures widely on all of her books and the social issues they cover. She is represented by Jodi Solomon Agency in Boston.
In the subject area of Gender Studies, she has written both about boys and violence, and girls and body image.
Joan lectures widely on all of her books and the social issues they cover. She is represented by Jodi Solomon Agency in Boston.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
March 15, 2021
As a formerly eating-disordered person, I’m fascinated by the cultural, personal, and biological factors that contributed to this group of diseases taking over my teenage years. I’m particularly interested in the link between religion and eating disorders, because my ED was heavily related to my then-intense spirituality.
This book is therefore right up my alley. It links the “modern” disease of anorexia to historical “fasting girls," many religiously motivated. However, the author-- despite narrating all these stories about medieval saints and puritanical Victorian girls who fasted, and juxtaposing them beside more modern EDs-- is adamant in her belief that anorexia nervosa is a purely modern disease, triggered by modern societal pressures. It's actually pretty confusing-- she seems to show us how they're the same, then insists (without any real arguments) that they're different. She says several times that she thinks anorexia mirabilis (so-called miraculous fasting, performed historically) is patently different form anorexia nervosa, and that they're rooted in different psychological impulses.
I wildly disagree. It's all the same: a horror of the flesh, of the physical world, of the realization that you are part of the slimy, grimy, organic world. Saints and wan Victorian girls may have explained that body horror in more explicitly religious terms, but it's just different language for the same thing.
Anyway, that disagreement aside, it’s a really, really excellent history of “fasting girls” (whatever you want to call them-- saints or patients). It showcases specific case histories, but also looks at broad themes of how these women were perceived throughout history (and how various cultural factors may have contributed).
This book is therefore right up my alley. It links the “modern” disease of anorexia to historical “fasting girls," many religiously motivated. However, the author-- despite narrating all these stories about medieval saints and puritanical Victorian girls who fasted, and juxtaposing them beside more modern EDs-- is adamant in her belief that anorexia nervosa is a purely modern disease, triggered by modern societal pressures. It's actually pretty confusing-- she seems to show us how they're the same, then insists (without any real arguments) that they're different. She says several times that she thinks anorexia mirabilis (so-called miraculous fasting, performed historically) is patently different form anorexia nervosa, and that they're rooted in different psychological impulses.
I wildly disagree. It's all the same: a horror of the flesh, of the physical world, of the realization that you are part of the slimy, grimy, organic world. Saints and wan Victorian girls may have explained that body horror in more explicitly religious terms, but it's just different language for the same thing.
Anyway, that disagreement aside, it’s a really, really excellent history of “fasting girls” (whatever you want to call them-- saints or patients). It showcases specific case histories, but also looks at broad themes of how these women were perceived throughout history (and how various cultural factors may have contributed).
September 20, 2016
An old blog post: Historical ideations of starvation and amputation.
The book I read yesterday was Joan Jacobs Brumberg's study of the history of anorexia nervosa, Fasting Girls. In it, she explores the nature of the disease by examining the different ways it has manifested itself through history. Not only is the book itself definitive, interpreting cases in their own contemporary idiom rather than imposing modern explanations, it also sheds light on the general question of why certain mental illnesses appear more frequently in specific times and places.
Brumberg begins her discussion with holy women and saints of the late middle ages, many of whom fasted and experienced ecstatic visions. Catherine of Siena, for example, stopped eating except for taking the Eucharist (and by the theory of transubstantiation, I don't suppose this would count as eating at all). Another saint, Columba of Rieti, actually died of starvation. Their condition was referred to as "anorexia mirabilis" by their contemporaries; their decision not to eat was seen as holy rather than pathological and thus no attempt was made to 'treat' them.
That attitude carried over into the 19th century, the next period that saw many cases. These sufferers were called "fasting girls," because, then as now, nearly all were adolescent girls. The fasting girls claimed to take no sustenance at all or to subsist on flower petals or tea. They attracted a great deal of attention (the New York Times covered one case extensively), and the public wanted verification that they truly did not eat. Thus doctors would watch over the girls to substantiate that they ate nothing--effectively supervising the deaths of anorectics who had been sneaking tiny morsels of food all along.
Only in the late Victorian period did doctors make the breakthrough of seeing through patients' misleading descriptions of their symptoms: they realized that the anorectics were in fact hungry, after all. They told doctors that they weren't hungry, but it was fruitless to pursue the matter as a digestive complaint because the primary cause was psychological. This opened the field to the Freudians (who had some interesting theories about the rejection of the father's phallus). More plausible investigations centered on family dynamics, and how adolescent girls could disrupt their bourgeois families' domestic routines with their refusal to eat.
Brumberg's analysis of how the perception of anorexia nervosa changed from a voluntary expression of holiness to a dangerous pathology, led me to re-examine an article, "A New Way to be Mad," that has long haunted me. A discussion of people who voluntarily amputate their limbs, it also broaches the question of why certain psychiatric disorders become prevalent in certain societies, though it frustratingly fails to reach a firm conclusion.
The author of the article, Carl Elliott, posits that the availability of a diagnosis either (a) causes people to interpret their pre-existing feelings accordingly or (b) actually spawns new incidences of the disorder. His example is the disorder called apotemnophilia, whose sufferers are so obsessed with the belief that one or more parts of their body are not supposed to be there that many eventually attempt to amputate the offending parts. The condition was not named until 1977, but now newsgroups and websites flourish, offering sufferers support and advice on how to effect the amputations. He compares the phenomenon to the late 19th century mini-epidemic of amnesia, or the more recent wave of multiple-personality disorder cases.
Elliott writes:
Brumberg's explanation of why anorexia nervosa is prevalent in our society may help with this. She identifies two stages of the disease: the first, when the sufferer experiments with the restriction of her diet, and the second, where she becomes addicted to starvation as changes in her body actually lessen the hunger pangs she initially experienced. Once a "fasting girl" has reached the second stage, it is difficult to reverse the condition's pernicious effects on the body and mind. Brumberg shows that post-war American society became preoccupied with weight as an expression of health. Millions of Americans diet--more young women dieting means many more young women who are susceptible to sliding into the second phase of anorexia. Furthermore, America's interest in aerobic exercise masks one of the disease's other primary symptoms, hyperactivity. Sufferers have progressed farther into the disease when they are identified; those who are admitted to the hospital weigh ever less at the time of admission. Our society does not cause young women to refuse food, but it makes the disorder more dangerous.
Does all this mean that young Americans are expressing what might otherwise be a more generalized sort of depression or neurasthenia through anorexia nervosa? Brumberg's book led me to re-examine Elliott's article in a slightly different and more careful way: both appear to take the position that historical factors can create populations susceptible to interpreting their problems a particular way. The difference is in the disorder: Brumberg says that anorectics use the condition as a tool to make a point about their place in family and society; whereas Elliott suggests that the apotemnophiles turn within and use the diagnosis as a way to express their dissatisfaction with their bodies.
Elliott has written a book about how disorders becoming treatable makes them more prevalent, which I will now have to read. Obviously I am still trying to wrap my mind around this one; but in any case Fasting Girls uses its historical basis to present a particularly lucid description of anorexia nervosa and is well worth reading.
The book I read yesterday was Joan Jacobs Brumberg's study of the history of anorexia nervosa, Fasting Girls. In it, she explores the nature of the disease by examining the different ways it has manifested itself through history. Not only is the book itself definitive, interpreting cases in their own contemporary idiom rather than imposing modern explanations, it also sheds light on the general question of why certain mental illnesses appear more frequently in specific times and places.
Brumberg begins her discussion with holy women and saints of the late middle ages, many of whom fasted and experienced ecstatic visions. Catherine of Siena, for example, stopped eating except for taking the Eucharist (and by the theory of transubstantiation, I don't suppose this would count as eating at all). Another saint, Columba of Rieti, actually died of starvation. Their condition was referred to as "anorexia mirabilis" by their contemporaries; their decision not to eat was seen as holy rather than pathological and thus no attempt was made to 'treat' them.
That attitude carried over into the 19th century, the next period that saw many cases. These sufferers were called "fasting girls," because, then as now, nearly all were adolescent girls. The fasting girls claimed to take no sustenance at all or to subsist on flower petals or tea. They attracted a great deal of attention (the New York Times covered one case extensively), and the public wanted verification that they truly did not eat. Thus doctors would watch over the girls to substantiate that they ate nothing--effectively supervising the deaths of anorectics who had been sneaking tiny morsels of food all along.
Only in the late Victorian period did doctors make the breakthrough of seeing through patients' misleading descriptions of their symptoms: they realized that the anorectics were in fact hungry, after all. They told doctors that they weren't hungry, but it was fruitless to pursue the matter as a digestive complaint because the primary cause was psychological. This opened the field to the Freudians (who had some interesting theories about the rejection of the father's phallus). More plausible investigations centered on family dynamics, and how adolescent girls could disrupt their bourgeois families' domestic routines with their refusal to eat.
Brumberg's analysis of how the perception of anorexia nervosa changed from a voluntary expression of holiness to a dangerous pathology, led me to re-examine an article, "A New Way to be Mad," that has long haunted me. A discussion of people who voluntarily amputate their limbs, it also broaches the question of why certain psychiatric disorders become prevalent in certain societies, though it frustratingly fails to reach a firm conclusion.
The author of the article, Carl Elliott, posits that the availability of a diagnosis either (a) causes people to interpret their pre-existing feelings accordingly or (b) actually spawns new incidences of the disorder. His example is the disorder called apotemnophilia, whose sufferers are so obsessed with the belief that one or more parts of their body are not supposed to be there that many eventually attempt to amputate the offending parts. The condition was not named until 1977, but now newsgroups and websites flourish, offering sufferers support and advice on how to effect the amputations. He compares the phenomenon to the late 19th century mini-epidemic of amnesia, or the more recent wave of multiple-personality disorder cases.
Elliott writes:
Ian Hacking uses the term 'semantic contagion' to describe the way in which publicly identifying and describing a condition creates the means by which that condition spreads. He says it is always possible for people to reinterpret their past in light of a new conceptual category. (Emphasis added.)This is where the article begins to worry me, since the idea of language creating concepts is dangerous territory. The strong version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis would suggest that people whose languages have different words for light and dark blue should be more able to tell the difference than we, who call them both 'blue,' but of course that's not the case. So it seems that Elliott is saying something a little different and more believable: that the description and official sanction of apotemnophilia by doctors, not the mere concept of self-amputation, is what leads people to consider it.
Brumberg's explanation of why anorexia nervosa is prevalent in our society may help with this. She identifies two stages of the disease: the first, when the sufferer experiments with the restriction of her diet, and the second, where she becomes addicted to starvation as changes in her body actually lessen the hunger pangs she initially experienced. Once a "fasting girl" has reached the second stage, it is difficult to reverse the condition's pernicious effects on the body and mind. Brumberg shows that post-war American society became preoccupied with weight as an expression of health. Millions of Americans diet--more young women dieting means many more young women who are susceptible to sliding into the second phase of anorexia. Furthermore, America's interest in aerobic exercise masks one of the disease's other primary symptoms, hyperactivity. Sufferers have progressed farther into the disease when they are identified; those who are admitted to the hospital weigh ever less at the time of admission. Our society does not cause young women to refuse food, but it makes the disorder more dangerous.
Does all this mean that young Americans are expressing what might otherwise be a more generalized sort of depression or neurasthenia through anorexia nervosa? Brumberg's book led me to re-examine Elliott's article in a slightly different and more careful way: both appear to take the position that historical factors can create populations susceptible to interpreting their problems a particular way. The difference is in the disorder: Brumberg says that anorectics use the condition as a tool to make a point about their place in family and society; whereas Elliott suggests that the apotemnophiles turn within and use the diagnosis as a way to express their dissatisfaction with their bodies.
Elliott has written a book about how disorders becoming treatable makes them more prevalent, which I will now have to read. Obviously I am still trying to wrap my mind around this one; but in any case Fasting Girls uses its historical basis to present a particularly lucid description of anorexia nervosa and is well worth reading.
April 23, 2012
This book is a great insight into the fact that anorexia isn't new. It is very well written about how this eating disorder was present throughout history. I do want to add here a theory of my own having lived with the disease for 40 years. I consider part of it to be what I call "instinct". If you study animals there are many that in times of stress shut down and stop eating, moving. And other creatures who in times of stress eat as much as they can because they don't know what is around the corner. I think a little of anorexia (for me it is a lot) is biologically programmed into our bodies and not a psychological disease at all. This discussion I should take to my blog but it is a great book.
August 16, 2021
Fascinating! Two-fold fascinating- both as a history of what we might colloquially call anorexia across the centuries, but also as a snapshot of the '80s view on feminism, girl/womanhood, and how an eating disorder can permeate a society.
Like many middle class Americans, I have a very personal relationship with food, both consuming it, and sharing it as an act of love. Thus, reading a history like this is just absolutely engrossing. I've internalized the idea of food as a statement about a person, a family, or a community since a young age, but Jacobs-Brumberg's assessment of food, or the self-denial of it, as a weapon, or a statement of autonomy, or a religious delusion, completely turned my head.
Engaging all the way through, replete with case studies, cultural history, and well argued conjecture, Fasting Girls is definitely an eye-opener for anyone curious about the social construction of the modern (or at least late 20th century) female body.
I will say that the version I read was the paperback edition from 1989/90, I would be very curious to see a newer edition with chapters addressing the modern incarnations of eating disorders and the way communities have sprung up around them through social media etc. I would also be curious to see male eating disorders addressed, as (remember, this was written in the mid-80s) Jacobs-Brumberg largely dismisses them out of hand, and we know today that they are far more prevalent than that.
Like many middle class Americans, I have a very personal relationship with food, both consuming it, and sharing it as an act of love. Thus, reading a history like this is just absolutely engrossing. I've internalized the idea of food as a statement about a person, a family, or a community since a young age, but Jacobs-Brumberg's assessment of food, or the self-denial of it, as a weapon, or a statement of autonomy, or a religious delusion, completely turned my head.
Engaging all the way through, replete with case studies, cultural history, and well argued conjecture, Fasting Girls is definitely an eye-opener for anyone curious about the social construction of the modern (or at least late 20th century) female body.
I will say that the version I read was the paperback edition from 1989/90, I would be very curious to see a newer edition with chapters addressing the modern incarnations of eating disorders and the way communities have sprung up around them through social media etc. I would also be curious to see male eating disorders addressed, as (remember, this was written in the mid-80s) Jacobs-Brumberg largely dismisses them out of hand, and we know today that they are far more prevalent than that.
September 27, 2010
I read this for Krishnendu Ray's Contemporary Issues in Food Studies, September 2010. A remarkably easy read considering the depressing subject matter, but thankfully it ends on a hopeful note. Choice quotations (based on where I left bookmarks during my reading, which I am now clearing out in order to return the book to the library):
Skeptical neurologist George Beard on the case of Mollie Fancher, "The Brooklyn Enigma," who became famous for eating almost nothing during more than 50 years she spent bed-ridden in the late 19th and early 20th centuries:
I mean, wow, dude (by which I mean: "well, screw you too, buddy"). In class we talked about the role of "fasting girls" in the rise of scientific medicine and "expert" doctors to prominence over the previous social and moral authorities (i.e. priests) and this Beard fellow pretty much reeks of having a big ol' "dammit I'm just as good as God" complex, yesh.
On Charles Lasègue, the French physician whose 1873 description of what he termed l'anorexie hysterique was crucial to understanding the importance of familial relationships in eating disorders:
An excerpt from Hilde Bruch's Eating Disorders, published a century later (emphasis mine):
Brumberg actually returns to the line I bold-faced up there in her conclusion, which as I mentioned before is remarkably hopeful given the depressing nature of her book's subject matter. Moving on... the author devotes a few pages to Annette Kellerman, Australian swimmer and silent film star who embodied (ha, ha) the early twentieth century's increasing fascination with the "svelte female figure" (242):
Ooh, yeah, with a BMI of 24.1, I can only imagine how doomed Walter "really we shouldn't allow the 'normal' BMI range to be so darned high" Willett thinks she was. Sigh.
I had three bookmarks in the endnote sections, and I'm not sure what I meant to highlight with those, but here's a few guesses:
In case I need to give myself heartburn: "The Obese Person," Time magazine, 1 March 1943; "Fat Personality," Newsweek, 17 November 1952 — I'm sure those are just delightful reads. (342)
But then there's:
Which reminds me: I finally got Measured Meals from Bobst: now I should read it.
Brumberg shouts out Hillel Schwartz's Never Satisfied , which I should really read one of these days, and some feminist books which address "modern dieting and the cultural imperative for slimness in women": Kim Chernin, The Obsession: Reflections on the Tyranny of Slenderness (New York, 1981) and Ann Scott Beller, Fat and Thin: A Natural History of Obesity (New York, 1977). Which I don't know if I could handle reading given their age and my advanced crankitude.
Then there's William Bennett and Joel Gurin, The Dieter's Dilemma: Eating Less and Weighing More (New York, 1982), especially chapter 5.
And that's Fasting Girls, now bookmark-free, so I can return it to the library. Yay!
Skeptical neurologist George Beard on the case of Mollie Fancher, "The Brooklyn Enigma," who became famous for eating almost nothing during more than 50 years she spent bed-ridden in the late 19th and early 20th centuries:
"The testimony of non-experts amounts to nothing.... If we accept non-expert testimony there can be no science. The first step in any science is the rejection of all average non-expert human testimony relating to it." (86)
I mean, wow, dude (by which I mean: "well, screw you too, buddy"). In class we talked about the role of "fasting girls" in the rise of scientific medicine and "expert" doctors to prominence over the previous social and moral authorities (i.e. priests) and this Beard fellow pretty much reeks of having a big ol' "dammit I'm just as good as God" complex, yesh.
On Charles Lasègue, the French physician whose 1873 description of what he termed l'anorexie hysterique was crucial to understanding the importance of familial relationships in eating disorders:
In effect, it took a Frenchman, convinced of the manifold delights of the palate, to suggest the basic connection between love and food in the making of anorexia nervosa. (127)
An excerpt from Hilde Bruch's Eating Disorders, published a century later (emphasis mine):
"...eating, from birth on, is always closely intermingled with interpersonal experiences, and its physiological and psychological aspects cannot be strictly differentiated. There is no human society that deals rationally with food in its environment, that eats according to the availability, edibility, and nutritional value alone. Food is endowed with complex values and elaborate ideologies, religious beliefs, and prestige systems." (227)
Brumberg actually returns to the line I bold-faced up there in her conclusion, which as I mentioned before is remarkably hopeful given the depressing nature of her book's subject matter. Moving on... the author devotes a few pages to Annette Kellerman, Australian swimmer and silent film star who embodied (ha, ha) the early twentieth century's increasing fascination with the "svelte female figure" (242):
Kellerman was proud of her 5-foot-3-1/4-inch, 137-pound body. She alleged that Dudley A. Sargent, director of physical training at Harvard, thought her figure "nearer the correct proportions than any he had ever seen." Although Kellerman's weight and measurements (35-26-37) seem quite ample by today's standards, she was an avid campaigner against fat." (243)
Ooh, yeah, with a BMI of 24.1, I can only imagine how doomed Walter "really we shouldn't allow the 'normal' BMI range to be so darned high" Willett thinks she was. Sigh.
I had three bookmarks in the endnote sections, and I'm not sure what I meant to highlight with those, but here's a few guesses:
In case I need to give myself heartburn: "The Obese Person," Time magazine, 1 March 1943; "Fat Personality," Newsweek, 17 November 1952 — I'm sure those are just delightful reads. (342)
But then there's:
The word "diet," formerly a more general term for the regulation of food intake for a variety of purposes [or, y'know, just generally what a person eats —TvC], has now come to mean the reduction of food intake to lower weight and slim the body.... See Margaret Ohlson, "Diet Therapy in the United States in the Past 200 Years," Journal of the American Dietetic Association 60 (November 1976), 490-497. Modern dieting has (342) another characteristic that distinguishes it from its predecessors: in the twentieth century the diet is generally based on some quantitative system or unit of measurement that can be counted, such as exchange lists based on the food groups, or calories. (343)
Which reminds me: I finally got Measured Meals from Bobst: now I should read it.
Brumberg shouts out Hillel Schwartz's Never Satisfied , which I should really read one of these days, and some feminist books which address "modern dieting and the cultural imperative for slimness in women": Kim Chernin, The Obsession: Reflections on the Tyranny of Slenderness (New York, 1981) and Ann Scott Beller, Fat and Thin: A Natural History of Obesity (New York, 1977). Which I don't know if I could handle reading given their age and my advanced crankitude.
Then there's William Bennett and Joel Gurin, The Dieter's Dilemma: Eating Less and Weighing More (New York, 1982), especially chapter 5.
And that's Fasting Girls, now bookmark-free, so I can return it to the library. Yay!
July 23, 2010
I was at first hesitant to read this book because it's a little old (it was originally published in the 80s) and because it's the "history of anorexia" and not a history of eating disorders *in general* (which probably has a lot to due with it being written in the 80s, HOWEVER, I thought it was a really interesting read and Brumberg's general arguments still carry weight (no pun intended) in the present cultural milieu.
I have to admit that I'm not the biggest history buff because I have no attention span, so the first few chapters were *interesting* but didn't grab me as much. I was really fascinated by the chapters that (in my opinion) more effectively intertwined historical texts with cultural analysis and the sociology of medicine. I think that Brumberg presented herself as a stricter historian in her writing about the earlier periods and then put herself into the book more as a feminist historian as the text became more current.
I think it's very valuable that she traces the historical and cultural production of bodies: from valuing the functionality of bodies to valuing their appearance, by citing the origin of "ideal weight" (versus average weight) by one insurance company, and by weaving issues of female sexuality and class into her framework.
I enjoyed that she added a postscript (10 years after the original publication) that was more personal and provided recommendations to women about how to move away from the norm of judging and valuing women by the size of their bodies before anything else.
I have to admit that I'm not the biggest history buff because I have no attention span, so the first few chapters were *interesting* but didn't grab me as much. I was really fascinated by the chapters that (in my opinion) more effectively intertwined historical texts with cultural analysis and the sociology of medicine. I think that Brumberg presented herself as a stricter historian in her writing about the earlier periods and then put herself into the book more as a feminist historian as the text became more current.
I think it's very valuable that she traces the historical and cultural production of bodies: from valuing the functionality of bodies to valuing their appearance, by citing the origin of "ideal weight" (versus average weight) by one insurance company, and by weaving issues of female sexuality and class into her framework.
I enjoyed that she added a postscript (10 years after the original publication) that was more personal and provided recommendations to women about how to move away from the norm of judging and valuing women by the size of their bodies before anything else.
March 8, 2024
Really interesting look at the history of anorexia nervosa, going all the way back to the spiritually-focused fasting girls of the 18th and 19th centuries (and even earlier). The author does a really great job tracing the reasons why girls would control and suppress their appetites over time, linking it to how food and eating connected to femininity in each period of history. The book was published almost 40 years ago so I would have loved to read even more about the modern day landscape of eating disorders from this author’s perspective.
May 30, 2018
I agree with most of what she talks about. But I'm extremely annoyed by her avoidance of the obesity epidemic as a reason for the rise in EDs. She does talk about the unhealthy modern food environment a little bit in the last chapter, but she completely dances around it and promotes "fat acceptance" as the "solution" to eating disorders. Instead of promoting nutrition and researching WHY we're having an obesity crisis, she strongly promotes "fat acceptance" instead and basically calls anyone who tries to take care of their health (and as a result becomes thin) as "narcissistic" for doing this. According to her, we should all just accept being ugly and fat and not try to improve ourselves in any way because we might suffer some kind of eating disorder. That is NOT a true solution. As bad as "under-eating" disorders are, the vast majority of the country eats unhealthily, which is why they're fat, which is why they try to "under-eat" to begin with. If you fix nutrition and get everyone on an unprocessed vegan diet, you fix 99% of "overeating" and "undereating" problems. While I agree with her book that anorexia has existed for a long time in one form or another, you CANNOT blame social media alone for the huge rise in eating disorders. It comes from the toxic food environment creating a massive obesity epidemic. This author acts like people in the past were always this fat and that they just didn't notice it because social media wasn't there to tell them about it. Which isn't true. As soon as the population was wealthy enough to eat large amounts of animal products (aka the growing middle class in victorian times), then the population began to grow fat (just like the aristocracy of old). The ever-increasing amounts of "rich foods" (aka animal products) is what set off the worries of "remaining thin", because it suddenly became VERY difficult to remain thin because of what people were routinely eating on a daily basis!!
One of my favorite quotes from a TEDtalk is "extremity on one end begets extremity on the other end." AKA because of the massive increase in obesity (because of rich foods in vast cheap quantities), we see a massive increase in dieting and "under-eating". Fix the obesity problem (which is 80% of the population at this point) and you fix much of the eating disorder problem (which is only 1-5% of the population). Whatever the fix is, "fat acceptance" is definitely not the answer. That path leads to continued heart disease, diabetes, stroke, dementia, etc.
One of my favorite quotes from a TEDtalk is "extremity on one end begets extremity on the other end." AKA because of the massive increase in obesity (because of rich foods in vast cheap quantities), we see a massive increase in dieting and "under-eating". Fix the obesity problem (which is 80% of the population at this point) and you fix much of the eating disorder problem (which is only 1-5% of the population). Whatever the fix is, "fat acceptance" is definitely not the answer. That path leads to continued heart disease, diabetes, stroke, dementia, etc.
September 11, 2014
This was fascinating. You think of anorexia as a modern disease, especially since food used to be difficult to come by, and in some senses, it is a modern disease, but some of the symptoms have been around/recorded for hundreds of years. This was a great read, very interesting.
September 20, 2021
working my way through a backlog of things that caught my attention years ago -- found this interesting in places & dated in others ? like with the body keeps the score, i have no real experience or knowledge to pattern my reading, other than a v classic Fraught History with my body, so i'm working on Vibes. and while i think this has many blindspots, many of which are central to fearing the black body, it is compelling re: the cultural fears, fascinations & conflicts that are coded into the starvation of white girls and women at various points in history.
October 10, 2020
A fascinating and informative book! Highly recommend it.
Read
June 10, 2021I liked this but I thought the afterword (where the author discusses contemporary [i.e. 80s] anorexia) was the weakest bit. The 18th-19th cent stuff was good tho
July 19, 2012
I note that not so many of us males have reviewed this book, which is a shame as after reading it I don't think a man can ever look on women the same way. Of course men think about their bodies, but not every day and normally not for long. So I thank my author for opening my eyes to the other half lives.
Cultural influences are very important - a truism I suppose. But the mechanistic biomedical explanations are more influential in shaping policies and hence anorexia nervosa and its cousin bulimia nervosa are therapeutically dealt with. This author makes a powerful case for an alternative narrative derived from feminist history. Like several other reviewers I faltered over the first few chapters, on reflection because the facts on which the author fed were limited, and she is too good a scholar to wildly speculate. As the facts became richer the book became more fascinating. As I doubt women in rich countries are going to return to being baby making machines from the age of 13 this tale hasn't neared completion.
Cultural influences are very important - a truism I suppose. But the mechanistic biomedical explanations are more influential in shaping policies and hence anorexia nervosa and its cousin bulimia nervosa are therapeutically dealt with. This author makes a powerful case for an alternative narrative derived from feminist history. Like several other reviewers I faltered over the first few chapters, on reflection because the facts on which the author fed were limited, and she is too good a scholar to wildly speculate. As the facts became richer the book became more fascinating. As I doubt women in rich countries are going to return to being baby making machines from the age of 13 this tale hasn't neared completion.
March 22, 2009
I bought this book because I have a student dealing with anorexia. I've always known girls who had disordered eating habits, so I had a working knowledge of the condition, but I had never known someone who was hospitalized for it. I read this wanting to know more about it.
It's a history book, which made it refreshing to read. Brumberg is a historian, so while her tone seems a bit clinical at times, she definitely stays away from the common tendency to get dramatic over the subject matter. In fact, the straight-forwardness of her presentation of the facts conveyed a seriousness that was truly frightening. And likely as the most refreshing aspect of her reading was the lack of judgement, either on the anorectic or society.
I will probably read her other work.
It's a history book, which made it refreshing to read. Brumberg is a historian, so while her tone seems a bit clinical at times, she definitely stays away from the common tendency to get dramatic over the subject matter. In fact, the straight-forwardness of her presentation of the facts conveyed a seriousness that was truly frightening. And likely as the most refreshing aspect of her reading was the lack of judgement, either on the anorectic or society.
I will probably read her other work.
March 11, 2011
I picked up this book to do some research for a horror story and found it absorbing. I particularly liked the author's argument that Victorian-era anorexia "honored the emotional guidelines governing the middle-class Victorian family."
I also learned a cool word from this book: "Parentectomy" - the medical move of removing the patient from her parents... a strategy more effective than sentimental, deluded American adults would like to believe...
All in all, a fascinating journey to a dark place.
I also learned a cool word from this book: "Parentectomy" - the medical move of removing the patient from her parents... a strategy more effective than sentimental, deluded American adults would like to believe...
All in all, a fascinating journey to a dark place.
October 22, 2017
The book itself and the forward and afterward written over a decade ago are very outdated in terms of understanding anorexia nervosa. I am always weary when an author makes a big point about being a feminist and did not appreciate that so little attention was given to men who may develop the condition. People I’ve known who have had the diagnosis come from a variety of backgrounds and so I don’t see the point of focusing on a singular culture. I also did not appreciate that all dieting was considered bad, as that is not the case.
April 10, 2009
I learned some history; the "current issues" section is a bit outdated, but you have to expect that from a book whose original publication date was in the 80s.
May 20, 2020
This should be a vital History book, not only from a medical, psychology, gender-studies perspective, but as it pertains to the Western culture (and probably for sociology in world history when it spreads). Brumberg's very well-researched work chronicles the historical manifestations of eating, or not eating, food, from Medieval times to modern times in women in middle-class/upper-class societies. Like many others have noted, her conclusions are drawn in the 1980s, and in a new edition Afterward, she republishes with trends in other genders and ethnicities. Of course, as Brumberg says, this is a complex disorder and it will forever, and ever keep evolving, changing forms, affecting new groups and "help" invent new treatments for this disease, which will potentially be diagnosed as something else (like "carb addiction" instead of "obesity").
Fasting Girls does touch on historical events where other disorders were developing -- and not only focuses on individual cases, but more importantly, how this disease is traced through out own sociological and cultural connections; thus perpetuating it in a myriad of ways. Fast food restaurants, Uber Eats, diet books, these are our cultural "negative" norms now, but I'm also very wary now of the "positive" ones that are drowning the "Wellness" industry via Veganism, Exercise Regimes with new gadgets and Youtube, "Healthy" food-porn instagram accounts, and our obsession with what someone eats in a day -- it's nuts. The motivation for individual and cultural movements to be more mindful about what we put in our bodies is also scary, because pickiness, 'intolerances,' even the grazing "foodie," makes one's food-peculiarities all the more socially acceptance, thus used as a defense in medical offices.
Most of all, Brumberg is persistent in her historical insight, and the fact that she's not a medical professional, but does write with passion about what we CAN do -- be an active role model, come up with a personal philosophy about how you're going to engage in beauty/diet talk, even with yourself; and how you will speak up if a person, organization or product is irrational -- stop the habit loop. I loved her suggestion of changing the topics of conversations (especially among women) from make-up, soaps and smoothie to ideas, education, hobbies -- and wouldn't that help ALL humans understand ourselves and one another?
Fasting Girls does touch on historical events where other disorders were developing -- and not only focuses on individual cases, but more importantly, how this disease is traced through out own sociological and cultural connections; thus perpetuating it in a myriad of ways. Fast food restaurants, Uber Eats, diet books, these are our cultural "negative" norms now, but I'm also very wary now of the "positive" ones that are drowning the "Wellness" industry via Veganism, Exercise Regimes with new gadgets and Youtube, "Healthy" food-porn instagram accounts, and our obsession with what someone eats in a day -- it's nuts. The motivation for individual and cultural movements to be more mindful about what we put in our bodies is also scary, because pickiness, 'intolerances,' even the grazing "foodie," makes one's food-peculiarities all the more socially acceptance, thus used as a defense in medical offices.
Most of all, Brumberg is persistent in her historical insight, and the fact that she's not a medical professional, but does write with passion about what we CAN do -- be an active role model, come up with a personal philosophy about how you're going to engage in beauty/diet talk, even with yourself; and how you will speak up if a person, organization or product is irrational -- stop the habit loop. I loved her suggestion of changing the topics of conversations (especially among women) from make-up, soaps and smoothie to ideas, education, hobbies -- and wouldn't that help ALL humans understand ourselves and one another?
August 16, 2022
A fascinating read! Brumberg discusses the current (written in the 80s) problem of anorexia in young women and girls and explores the way similar behaviors have cropped up historically. I really appreciated her stressing that, while we should not assume that people in the past thought the same way we do and should not apply modern diagnoses to them (something we seem very prone to do these days), it is still illuminating to compare and contrast behaviors, treatments, possible causes, and social views of this tragic disorder.
I also loved the Postcript to this addition where she demonstrates a true care & concern for young women by saying "reliance on beauty as power is a dangerous form of dependency...this kind of 'religion' will not sustain [young women] well over a lifetime. Girls need to understand that if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, those who rely on beauty are actually controlled by others. Their sense of satisfaction will always depend on the compliments and approval they win rather than on an authentic sense of efficacy and worth" (p. 275) and "What we must develop for ourselves and for our girls is a self-conscious strategy to shift attention away from our bodies to our brains...We need to offer young women an alternative philosophy of the self" (p. 274). What a desperately needed message then as now. I also really loved her pointing out the connections between capitalism, consumerism, and the diet/health/beauty industries.
Brumberg does a fantastic job covering historical issues such as the eponymous "fasting girls" and the Victorian attitudes toward food as a statement of social class and gender roles. However, I would have loved to have more detail about the medieval nuns and other religious women who starved themselves in pursuit of holiness for some reason. Brumberg touches on this topic, but I would really like to have had a little more about it.
I would also love to see Brumberg publish a new edition, or even a sequel, to this book exploring the role that the internet and social media plays in eating disorders. Whether it's the disturbing world of early 2010s pro-ana Pinterest pins before they were banned by the site, constant photoshopped images, or even just seeing a relentless feed of peers' body-focused photos, the dangers for young girls seem to have exploded since this book was written.
I also loved the Postcript to this addition where she demonstrates a true care & concern for young women by saying "reliance on beauty as power is a dangerous form of dependency...this kind of 'religion' will not sustain [young women] well over a lifetime. Girls need to understand that if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, those who rely on beauty are actually controlled by others. Their sense of satisfaction will always depend on the compliments and approval they win rather than on an authentic sense of efficacy and worth" (p. 275) and "What we must develop for ourselves and for our girls is a self-conscious strategy to shift attention away from our bodies to our brains...We need to offer young women an alternative philosophy of the self" (p. 274). What a desperately needed message then as now. I also really loved her pointing out the connections between capitalism, consumerism, and the diet/health/beauty industries.
Brumberg does a fantastic job covering historical issues such as the eponymous "fasting girls" and the Victorian attitudes toward food as a statement of social class and gender roles. However, I would have loved to have more detail about the medieval nuns and other religious women who starved themselves in pursuit of holiness for some reason. Brumberg touches on this topic, but I would really like to have had a little more about it.
I would also love to see Brumberg publish a new edition, or even a sequel, to this book exploring the role that the internet and social media plays in eating disorders. Whether it's the disturbing world of early 2010s pro-ana Pinterest pins before they were banned by the site, constant photoshopped images, or even just seeing a relentless feed of peers' body-focused photos, the dangers for young girls seem to have exploded since this book was written.
May 20, 2025
in chapter 9, "modern dieting," brumberg talks some about the role insurance™ (and especially the Standard Table of Heights and Weights) played in pathologizing body weights that deviate from the "average" (or later, c. the mid-1910s, the "ideal")...but she doesn't say anything about what she as the author thinks of that, which i would think would be necessary to make this a New Contribution. but what do i know!
also, in her "afterword" she seems to try and tie her whole point together, but there's no "so what." like, okay, eating disorders run rampant on college campuses. removing the person with disordered/disorderly eating from their parents/guardians has helped with eating disorder treatment in the past (c. like, the early 1900s) and yet the separation from parents typical of college life does not help with disordered eating--which, notably, is not always happening when people with eating disorders start college. and while she spends some time considering that perhaps it is the culture that's sick, her suggestions on how to remedy that fact were not really satisfactory to me. lol.
also worth mentioning that at least 2 of the case studies she mentioned from the early 1900s (specifically re: fear of growing up/"becoming a woman") seemed to me to have overtones of incestuous abuse. but she was i guess unwilling to address that? or she just didn't notice it? or she didn't think it was relevant? overall a pretty incoherent book, but i guess not a terrible primer to the [medical/psychiatric] Literature on disordered eating...though i myself am pretty new to reading about any of this stuff! also it struck me as simultaneously feminist and [un-/anti-]feminist, which is a weird thing to achieve to be honest...
also, in her "afterword" she seems to try and tie her whole point together, but there's no "so what." like, okay, eating disorders run rampant on college campuses. removing the person with disordered/disorderly eating from their parents/guardians has helped with eating disorder treatment in the past (c. like, the early 1900s) and yet the separation from parents typical of college life does not help with disordered eating--which, notably, is not always happening when people with eating disorders start college. and while she spends some time considering that perhaps it is the culture that's sick, her suggestions on how to remedy that fact were not really satisfactory to me. lol.
also worth mentioning that at least 2 of the case studies she mentioned from the early 1900s (specifically re: fear of growing up/"becoming a woman") seemed to me to have overtones of incestuous abuse. but she was i guess unwilling to address that? or she just didn't notice it? or she didn't think it was relevant? overall a pretty incoherent book, but i guess not a terrible primer to the [medical/psychiatric] Literature on disordered eating...though i myself am pretty new to reading about any of this stuff! also it struck me as simultaneously feminist and [un-/anti-]feminist, which is a weird thing to achieve to be honest...
December 3, 2018
This work on the history of anorexia nervosa in the Western world is engaging and interesting precisely because it is a unique entry into the increasingly abundant literature of eating disorders. As a survey on the basic trends and stereotypes that popular culture has about this disorder, Brumberg makes some insightful points and draws meaningful conclusions. However, readers truly interested in understanding the disorder and individuals struggling with it may do well to seek information elsewhere. Some of the thoughts, ideas, and research are clearly dated - the stereotype that young, affluent, intelligent girls are those most likely to become afflicted serves almost as the thesis of this book. An interesting discussion follows that may accurately treat the historical development of that particular demographic. However, as more and more unreported cases due to shame in certain cultures or lack of financial resources are discovered, this singularly focused book is perhaps in neeed of an update. This book is most helpful if read in context of a wider body of work on eating disorders, and understood as historical and not an attempt to understand the complex and deeply personal psychological causes behind individual persons struggling with anorexia. I do commend the author for her work. It is clearly well researched and ahead of its time, it is simply dated now. She also never claims to have it all figured out. Taken for what it is and nothing more, this is a valuable work.
December 1, 2019
A well researched and well written historical account of anorexia nervosa. Medical history is an interest of mine. The book starts with early religious fasting, mostly by women. It continues through the centuries, spending a substantial amount of time in the late 18th and 19th century, when doctors began defining and formalizing the diagnosis of anorexia nervosa. The part is what I find interesting, things like defining reflect so much about a culture-their values, their medical standards, etc. The book continues through the 20th century, focusing a great deal on changing societal standards of beauty and femininity.
A very insightful read. I only wish that it was written more recently. It came out in the 1980s, so the account stops there. I read some criticism that it focused mostly on women. It does, though it does not focus exclusively on women. And that was a historical argument as well, in the 19th century, when doctors were still working out a definition, some tried to define it as exclusively a women's disease (hysteria related), or if men experienced the same issues.
Highly recommended for people interested in the subject.
A very insightful read. I only wish that it was written more recently. It came out in the 1980s, so the account stops there. I read some criticism that it focused mostly on women. It does, though it does not focus exclusively on women. And that was a historical argument as well, in the 19th century, when doctors were still working out a definition, some tried to define it as exclusively a women's disease (hysteria related), or if men experienced the same issues.
Highly recommended for people interested in the subject.
February 26, 2024
all right, completely limited to the us/uk perspective though (mostly understandable), spent a little too much time (imo) on the eponymous fasting girls in respect to their actual relevance to modern disease called anorexia (not much)... Victorian section very interesting tho (Victorians were evil). kinda zoomed past the 20th century developments, expected more in-depth analysis considering 20th century cultural factors are very relevant to the preoccupations, behaviours, and triggers particular to modern anorexia (diet coke not mentioned nor any case studies). occasional passing mentions of bulimia but no further information. interested in a similar retrospective written from 2010 onwards.
October 12, 2018
3.5 stars.
This was an interesting look at the history of anorexia and the various cultural factors that lead to its prevalence today. I didn't look closely enough when I picked it up and was disappointed when it was historical and not clinical, but I ended up really enjoying it and learning a lot about the history of women not eating.
This was an interesting look at the history of anorexia and the various cultural factors that lead to its prevalence today. I didn't look closely enough when I picked it up and was disappointed when it was historical and not clinical, but I ended up really enjoying it and learning a lot about the history of women not eating.
May 5, 2019
Felt a little technical reading, mostly because it's a historian's book and I'm not super familiar with that field's writing. Very informative and interesting conclusions drawn, and I'd be interested in reading about Brumberg's thoughts yet another twenty years after her additional foreword and afterword in 2000.
March 17, 2022
This book traces Anorexia throughout history, from Medieval saints, to Victorian Era Fasting Girls, to modern (which in this case is 1980s!) anorectics. It talks about the varying reasons, physical, psychological, and social, that some women have had for not eating, and it looks at the culture's reaction and methods of treatment. It's a dry and factual--but still highly interesting--book.
August 15, 2022
Very informational yet sad book, given the topic. I really enjoyed learning about the history of anorexia and how it transformed throughout the decades. It felt a bit dry in some points, but still good nonetheless.
October 14, 2018
Fantastic book focussing on the socio-cultural history of anorexia. Sensitive, well-researched, and still current despite originally being published in the eighties.
June 4, 2019
Good introduction to history of anorexia but doesnt provide much detail especially about the fasting girls.
May 8, 2021
I read this book for a course I am taking on eating disorders. It provided a historical account of anorexia nervosa, treatment, and theorized causes. Quite informative.
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