The Michigan Daily - Monday, November 28, 1988 -Page 9;
Brumberg's Fasting:
fasting Girls: The
Emergence of
Anorexia Nervosa
as a Modern Disease
By Joan Jacobs Brumberg
Harvard Press
Hardcover/$25
Joan Jacobs Brumberg's new
book, Fasting Girls: The Emergence
of Anorexia Nervosa as a Modern
Disease, is misnamed. Despite the
fact that eating disorders are plaguing
society -at an alarmingly high level
(somewhere between 100,000 and 1
million Americans were treated for
such disorders in 1981), Brumberg
treats the history of the disease as
more important than its modern
significance. She does throw in pic-
tures of an emaciated Karen Carpen-
ter and the now-famous depiction of
a skinny girl standing in front of a
mirror which reflects her as fat -
but only after the reader has seen
paintings of a gaunt St. Catherine of
Siena and the dapper Sir William
Witherly Gull, the 17th century
doctor who first named and identified
anorexia nervosa.
Although Brumberg clarifies
some of the very common misunder-
standings surrounding eating dis-
orders and makes some significant
insights, they are too sparse. She
does show that anorexia is a disease
that strikes mainly middle- to upper-
Records
Continued from Page 8
time on any of them. Check out
some rising death metal - Death.
-Chuck Skarsaune
Koreana
Hand in Hand
Polydor
Every four years, a double-barrelled
blast of hype proclaims the
supremacy of the Official Reality:
In praise of Brun
she points out
society's ideals are c
dictory; pressure to t
conflicts with the
market which cater
fatty, high-caloric fo
the young businessp
class women from stable
and that, once acquired, c
cured; patients must strugg
least the mental, if not
effects for the rest of the
However, she doesn't exi
modern causes of the dise
the final two chapters.
Brumberg attributes the d
the cultural values of thec
affluent society. She fot
"girls rather than boys, (turn
as a symbolic language, be
culture (has) made an it
connection between food a
ninity and because girls' op
self-expression outside th
(are) limited to parental con
social convention." Brumb
offers biomedical diagn
anorexia, but she demonstr
these hormonal imbalances;
often the effect, rathert
cause.
Not true to title
In praise of Brumberg, she point
out how society's ideals are contra
berg, dictory; pressure to be thin conflict
how with the food market which cater
;ontra- fast, fatty, high-caloric foods to th
young businessperson. A woma
be thil who feels the pressure to be skinn
food and fit has the choice of consumin
s fast, fat-laden foods (How 'bout
Whopper?; 697 calories a flame
)ods to broiled slab!) or dieting constantly
erson. Although the media hype surroun
ding dieting has helped to increas
the fitness awareness of the countr
families today, undoubtedly it is also thi
annot be hype that has contributed to the $
le with at million spent on diet supplement
physical, last year alone.
eir lives' But these insightful remarks o
plain the Brumberg's are unfortunately limiter
ase until to the last couple of chapters. Th
entire rest of the book actually tries
disease to to explain the link between anorexil
educated in the 19th century and the cultura
und that predispositions of that era. Brumberj
n) to food subtitles the book "Anorexia as
cause the Modern Disease," and it is this topic
mportant that desperately needs to b
nd femi- addressed; unfortunately, her mentior
)tions for of it is minimal. It is important tha
e family the history of the illness is inves
cern and tigated, but if that was Brumberg'
erg also intention, then she should hav
oses of named her book something else
ates that Something like Skinny Saints; The
are more History of the Fasting Disease
than the Among Victorian Values.
-Asha Brandsteii
the Olympics and the Election. This
year the fagade has worn thin, what
with the unpolitical 24th Olympiad
in unquiet Seoul and a presidential
campaign like a soft-drink commer-
cial, but no one is giving up. Kore-
ana'sHand in Hand, with the official
version of the official theme song of
the '88 Summer Olympics, might be
called an unexploded bomb. This al-
bum is as authentically Korean as the
Olympic mascot, a Tony-the-Tiger
with a beribboned hat. It contains
nothing Korean but the faces on the
dust jacket. The band's music was
written and glossily produced by
Gorgio Moroder; they were clothed
by Giorgio Armani and managed in
Switzerland by "eurotop" -
reminiscent of the Eurovision con-
tests, where all Europe annually tries
to sound like Italians sounding like
Americans used to sound.
Sadly, even as a cultural forgery
this band fails. The songs are mostly
formula pop, with an occasional We
are the World- style sentimental gush
(done quite competently; if the An
tichrist ever has a PR campaign
Koreana could do the commercials)
Moroder injected every sound gim
mick he knew into this album, an
the sterile production absorbs them
whole. So this album, while no
good, is not really much worse than
the average mass-market dance pop
With some strategic funkification
Koreana could have a minor dance hi
with the plaintive "Stay" or the
plastic anthem "Victory." Perhaps
Hyundai will begin producing thes
inexpensive mass-market bands fo
export. Hand in Hand isn't there yet
but watch that band.
-Danny Krashin
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