The Body Image Trap: Understanding and Rejecting Body Image Myths

Joan McGrath is a Toronto Board of Education library consultant.

Millions of women are caught in The Body Image Trap: dissatisfied with
their own “less-than-perfect” bodies, they spend their lives in the
hopeless and disheartening pursuit of impossible physical perfection.
The obsession can begin as early as childhood; it can, and often does,
last a lifetime. It is fanned and encouraged by the merchants who profit
from our society’s fat phobia by selling useless exercisers, diet
foods, etc. This self-help book explains the background myth: how thin
became equated with “good,” and fat with “bad.” Understanding
this gigantic fraud can show the way out of the trap: accepting one’s
body as it is and as nature meant it to be, and not being controlled by
the myth. Above all, women, especially mothers, must learn not to pass
on the message of self-hate and dissatisfaction to yet another
generation. Though a bit repetitive, this book is easy to read and
persuasive. It contains an important message directed especially, but
not exclusively, to women. It includes worksheets for self-analysis,
Canada’s Food Guide, addresses for helping agencies, and a
bibliography.