The Obsession

Reflections on the Tyranny of Slenderness

"The Obsession is a deeply committed and beautifully written analysis of our society's increasing demand that women be thin. It offers a careful, thought provoking discussion, of the reasons men have encouraged this obsession and women have embraced it. It is a book about women's efforts to become thin rather than to accept the natural dimensions of their bodies–a book about the meaning of food and its rejection."

"Kim Chernin quietly and thoroughly undermines–one hopes forever–the popular, widely-endured tyranny of "thinness" over women's bodies and souls. To read her is to experience an immediate and distinct feeling of liberation."

- Alice Walker

"Eloquently written, passionate in its rhetoric, and consistently absorbing."

- New York Times

"A dense, subtle, moving, gentle yet powerful, wholly remarkable book."

- New Directions for Women

Publisher: Harper & Row; 1981, New York, paperback Harper & Row New York, 1982; 2nd edition of paperback with new introduction by the Author and pictures of the family, Harper Collins, New York, 1994.