A review by abgushte
Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: How the Quest for Perfection Is Harming Young Women by Courtney E. Martin

4.0

I think most women who read this will identify with the Perfect Girl description, or at least will see their friends in it. Martin kind of generalizes that all the Perfect Girls she knows go to prestigious academic institutions (even though she uses anecdotes from various backgrounds she seems to focus on academic achievement) but in my experience that is not necessarily the case. Some readers seem to think she is trying to talk about eating disorders in general when in fact Martin is focusing on Perfect Girls and their relationships with food as a means to perfection, and how this has come about from a feminist narrative. The points on feminism were particularly interesting, and indeed everyone should be outraged that it is widely accepted that women should all loathe themselves (it's kind of conspiracy-theory-ish, actually, that in an era were women should ostensibly have all of this power they focus all of it on hating their bodies).

She admits that no solution can result in instant social upheaval, but nevertheless tries to end on a positive note. She tries to give readers the tools to navigate their own borderline neuroses and the culture that encourages it without sounding TOO self-help-guru-y.