I wish I had all the money to buy this for every woman & teenage girl I know. And, while I'm at it, all the teenage boys and men would learn a lot from reading it too. I wanted to cry when I read (and recognized) the process young girls go through: we start out thinking of our bodies as a place where we live and play (an internal experience), but over time we are moved to an external perspective where our thoughts center on how our body looks—what we see and what we imagine others see & think about our bodies (self-objectification).

I was raised and live in a conservative religious culture (LDS) and have seen the emphasis on clothing standards for girls and women become more rigid in the last couple of decades. I bought into that mindset for a long time. This book perfectly explains how, despite our sincere desire to protect young women and teach them to respect and honor their bodies, we are Being Part of the Problem and There Is a Much Better Way.

I learned a lot from the Kites about media trends that influence and promote self-objectification (including ones that seem positive and empowering at first glance), so that was pretty eye-opening. There was a lot to help me work on the way I think about & treat my own body and how I can better teach my children to relate to theirs.

Note: I'm scratching my head at the people who take exception to Drs Kite pointing out that some people experience additional layers of objectification (such as women of color, women who are disabled, etc.) and that this is something to be aware of.