Every woman should read this book. It is HEAVILY gendered, so if you’re enby id steer clear. But wow I’ve recommended this to a dozen people since I’ve started it.

If you want to get closer to your divine femininity in relation to your body, menstrual cycle, food, and storytelling, read this! I found this to be much more than a book about eating disorders, but a book about womanhood. It's multifaceted and a great, quick read.

Multiple women had recommended this book to me as an insightful guide for mending broken relationships with food. While there were certain parts of the book I found useful/powerful, I had trouble connecting to much of the advice.

The book is organized around these "myths," which she uses as metaphors for our eating disorders. I would've just skipped the myths and talked more directly about the disordered behavior. I also thought some of the chapters were a leeeettle too new age-y for me. I'm not big on dream analysis, for example. But I think the overall tone of the book (one of forgiveness and self-awareness) was important. It's also got some great feminine power/embracing your womanhood passages.

For those on the hunt for resources: The book "Intuitive Eating" spoke more accurately to my disordered eating, although at the time I wasn't ready to put into practice its suggestions.

Despite its profound insights and beautiful articulation of the state of the culture and its impact on the feminine spirit, the book has far too much weight stigma for me to recommend it to others or to rate it any higher than 3 stars.

For example:

She insinuates that adherence to our internal hunger and fullness signals will inevitably lead to weight loss for those in larger bodies by claiming: “In their natural habitat, there are no fat zebras, cheetahs, or giraffes.” (pg. 156)

She also says that if a woman “eats when she is physically hungry and stops when she is full, she can eat what she wants and not get fat.” This is patently untrue and perpetuates diet culture’s damaging messages to women.

Additionally, the book ends with a veiled denunciation of emotional eating and a hidden promise of weight loss for those who quit it altogether. This negates so many of the good things the books has to say.

And also, I didn’t plan to make a big deal of it since the book was published in 1996. But since I’m already slightly ticked, what about men who struggle with eating disorders or disordered eating? What about asexual or non-heterosexual women?

Read this book. It has important things to say. But please, supplement it with other books that have advanced beyond this one in its approach to gender and to people in larger bodies.

Dives a little far into the "woo," for me, and that's saying something. However, the advice is actually fantastic, and the perspective-shifting is really welcome. I find that it aligns really well with the book [b:Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change|36626827|Sacred Instructions Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change|Sherri Mitchell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1518308148l/36626827._SY75_.jpg|58389259] by Native author Sherri Mitchell. The emphasis on the feminine and internal wisdom is common in both books. 4 stars for being fantastic and because I'm really, really glad I read it. 1 star missing because it goes a bit far, which is distracting. But perhaps it only feels too "woo" because my culture is very anti-intuition and anti-feminine?