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Dead Weight: Essays on Hunger and Harm
A personal and cultural look at the dark underbelly of Western beauty standards and the lethal culture of disordered eating they've wreaked
In Dead Weight, Emmeline Clein tells the story of her own disordered eating alongside, and through, other women from history, pop culture and the girls she's known and loved. Tracing the medical and cultural history of anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and orthorexia, Clein investigates the economic conditions underpinning our eating disorder epidemic, and illuminates the ways racism and today's feminism have been complicit in propping up the thin ideal. While examining Goop, Simone Weil, pro-anorexia blogs, and the flawed logic of our current treatment methods, Clein grapples with the myriad ways disordered eating has affected her own friendships and romantic relationships.
Dead Weight makes the case that we are faced with a culture of suppression and denial that is insidious, pervasive, and dangerous, one that internalizes and promotes the fetish of self-shrinking as a core tenet of the American cult of femininity. This is replicated in our algorithms, our television shows, our novels, and our relationships with one another. Dead Weight is a sharp, perceptive, and revelatory polemic for readers fascinated by the external forces shaping their lives.
In Dead Weight, Emmeline Clein tells the story of her own disordered eating alongside, and through, other women from history, pop culture and the girls she's known and loved. Tracing the medical and cultural history of anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and orthorexia, Clein investigates the economic conditions underpinning our eating disorder epidemic, and illuminates the ways racism and today's feminism have been complicit in propping up the thin ideal. While examining Goop, Simone Weil, pro-anorexia blogs, and the flawed logic of our current treatment methods, Clein grapples with the myriad ways disordered eating has affected her own friendships and romantic relationships.
Dead Weight makes the case that we are faced with a culture of suppression and denial that is insidious, pervasive, and dangerous, one that internalizes and promotes the fetish of self-shrinking as a core tenet of the American cult of femininity. This is replicated in our algorithms, our television shows, our novels, and our relationships with one another. Dead Weight is a sharp, perceptive, and revelatory polemic for readers fascinated by the external forces shaping their lives.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published February 27, 2024
343 people are currently reading
10.8k people want to read
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December 28, 2023
I feel conflicted about what to make of this book. Firstly, I suppose, to clarify, I was reading it, and thinking through it, as an individual with a diagnosis of AN for 10+ years, having spent the majority of my twenties in that cyclical roundabout of inpatient/daycare/outpatient/inpatient/daycare/outpatient ad nauseum. I am also from the UK, where we have the NHS, and our media & cultural landscape, although similar in parts due to the commodified and globalised world that we find ourselves collectively being subjected to in late stage capitalism, is not exactly the same.
Whilst I recognised the immense harm that our misogynistic mass media has on the young, especially women, I do not necessarily see this as the core reason, or indeed any reason, for why an individual goes on to develop an eating disorder. An eating disorder is, first and foremost, a mental health diagnosis, and, whilst labelling can be largely transitory, and in some cases, iatrogenic in nature, it is important, I think, to clarify the difference between body dysmorphia, one being on the receiving end of ableism/ misogynism/ sexism etc, and a mental health condition. There needed to be stronger clarification between disordered eating, and, an eating disorder. Whilst I think both are serious, and require medical intervention, they are not the same severity.
Whilst I understand the contemporaneous nature of the book in question, I think it could have been helpful to contextualise eating disorders in history, especially the emergence or so called, of orthorexia. Whilst it has, undeniably, been fostered & heightened by the “wellness� epidemic, and, in some cases, almost carte Blanche legitimised, individuals with an eating disorder operating on the pretence that they are pursuing “health�, is not new. Indeed, I have read of Victorian reports of patients avoiding meat and dairy due to “un-purity� of the foods in question. The core of how an eating disorder operates is, I think, largely stagnant, but the cultural sphere of which it is operating in changes, meaning that the language adapts, but the idea largely remains intact.
There was also little coverage of the genetic. In some studies, doctors place eating disorders as up to 60% genetic, and 40% environmental. I come from a family of people suffering from addictions, depression, suicide etc, whilst I do not know if this accounts for genetic predispositions to developing an eating disorder, or is the more the case of inter-generational trauma being passed down (the ghosts in the nursery), I think from personal experience that it must play a large role in how predisposed an individual is to developing an eating disorder. There is also interesting research emerging about metabolism and eating disorders which I think was given little attention.
From my own experiences in eating disorder services, I actually think there is far too much emphasis placed on the media and cultural landscape, and not enough placed on the individuals history, and other contributing factors. In my experience of treatment, too much emphasis was spent on corroborating the ideal female narratives that our society imposes on people, namely, I should recover so I could “have children�, “get married�, etc etc, which, whilst they might be “motivating� factors for some, certainly aren’t for me, and made me disdain and look down upon the “idiotic� nurses and doctors who were suggesting such a thing. There is was a sense, in my own eating disorder, that the world around me, and everyone in it,couldn’t see the wood through the trees, and sometimes I wonder if the alienation and loneliness epidemic that our society is currently experiencing, is in some way responsible for individuals turning inwards, creating and living through their own fantasy worlds in their heads, creating rules and order in amongst a world that is either too chaotic for them to handle, or has rules that they can’t abide by, because it makes them too sad.
Overall, I do think that this was an book with interesting parts, and perhaps my aversion to it stems largely from my own experiences, and my disdain for tying my own experience of an eating disorder into a narrative about pernicious cultural stereotypes. A year into my diagnosis I actually deleted all my social media accounts, and got a Nokia brick phone. I turned away from mainstream culture, and yet, my eating disorder still persisted.
Whilst I recognised the immense harm that our misogynistic mass media has on the young, especially women, I do not necessarily see this as the core reason, or indeed any reason, for why an individual goes on to develop an eating disorder. An eating disorder is, first and foremost, a mental health diagnosis, and, whilst labelling can be largely transitory, and in some cases, iatrogenic in nature, it is important, I think, to clarify the difference between body dysmorphia, one being on the receiving end of ableism/ misogynism/ sexism etc, and a mental health condition. There needed to be stronger clarification between disordered eating, and, an eating disorder. Whilst I think both are serious, and require medical intervention, they are not the same severity.
Whilst I understand the contemporaneous nature of the book in question, I think it could have been helpful to contextualise eating disorders in history, especially the emergence or so called, of orthorexia. Whilst it has, undeniably, been fostered & heightened by the “wellness� epidemic, and, in some cases, almost carte Blanche legitimised, individuals with an eating disorder operating on the pretence that they are pursuing “health�, is not new. Indeed, I have read of Victorian reports of patients avoiding meat and dairy due to “un-purity� of the foods in question. The core of how an eating disorder operates is, I think, largely stagnant, but the cultural sphere of which it is operating in changes, meaning that the language adapts, but the idea largely remains intact.
There was also little coverage of the genetic. In some studies, doctors place eating disorders as up to 60% genetic, and 40% environmental. I come from a family of people suffering from addictions, depression, suicide etc, whilst I do not know if this accounts for genetic predispositions to developing an eating disorder, or is the more the case of inter-generational trauma being passed down (the ghosts in the nursery), I think from personal experience that it must play a large role in how predisposed an individual is to developing an eating disorder. There is also interesting research emerging about metabolism and eating disorders which I think was given little attention.
From my own experiences in eating disorder services, I actually think there is far too much emphasis placed on the media and cultural landscape, and not enough placed on the individuals history, and other contributing factors. In my experience of treatment, too much emphasis was spent on corroborating the ideal female narratives that our society imposes on people, namely, I should recover so I could “have children�, “get married�, etc etc, which, whilst they might be “motivating� factors for some, certainly aren’t for me, and made me disdain and look down upon the “idiotic� nurses and doctors who were suggesting such a thing. There is was a sense, in my own eating disorder, that the world around me, and everyone in it,couldn’t see the wood through the trees, and sometimes I wonder if the alienation and loneliness epidemic that our society is currently experiencing, is in some way responsible for individuals turning inwards, creating and living through their own fantasy worlds in their heads, creating rules and order in amongst a world that is either too chaotic for them to handle, or has rules that they can’t abide by, because it makes them too sad.
Overall, I do think that this was an book with interesting parts, and perhaps my aversion to it stems largely from my own experiences, and my disdain for tying my own experience of an eating disorder into a narrative about pernicious cultural stereotypes. A year into my diagnosis I actually deleted all my social media accounts, and got a Nokia brick phone. I turned away from mainstream culture, and yet, my eating disorder still persisted.
Read
March 31, 2024What to even fucking say. It’s hard to read about something that almost killed you being analysed next to aesthetics and “girlhood� in an essay collection but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy this book. It is well researched and structured but there are a lot of problems. I long for the day when there will be a safer way for us to consume media about eating disorders without it becoming accidentally “glamorised� as is so easy to do now if you aren’t careful. I’ll probably be thinking about this book for a long time - it wasn’t nice for me to read but I’m thankful we have more literature on EDs now that isn’t just horrible 00s era memoirs.
February 26, 2024
Clein spent years entrenched in eating disorders, and in Dead Weight she examines some of the personal and societal obsessions that influenced her illness, and that of so many others.
Structured as a series of essays, Dead Weight leans heavily into pop culture, with an occasional academic bent. Clein has clearly read extensively—and consumed large amounts of other media—on the subject, and she quotes heavily. In places this works well, giving a sense of just how pervasive an issue is or in how many works it's reflected. I did end up wishing that fewer of the chapters/essays had taken this rapid-fire structure, with quotation following source following quotations, because it can feel very much like a montage, and I usually prefer to dive deeper into a topic or source (more analysis and fewer examples, I think). The pop culture parts have a very American lens; as someone who is American but is other things as well, I drew some very different conclusions (e.g., from the discussion of Girls vs. Fleabag) than Clein does, but there will be resonance for those whose media consumption is primarily American.
One thing that readers should be mindful of: While Clein makes a concerted effort to avoid potential triggers in the form of numbers and certain details of eating disorders and so on, I'm not sure she ever really manages to write past a level of latent ambivalence about her eating disorder. It's understandable but still a risky place to be writing from, and in places the compulsion to write, or perhaps just to delve into this in a sanctioned way, overrides caution. I don't know how to write about her without making her struggle into a manual or a vision board, writes Clein in a chapter that I can only describe as highly ill advised (and one of the most triggering things I've read in years). But I am going to try to write about her anyway... (loc. 3947*) An interesting read, but one I cannot recommend to anyone with anything other than a very healthy, uncomplicated relationship with their body.
*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
Structured as a series of essays, Dead Weight leans heavily into pop culture, with an occasional academic bent. Clein has clearly read extensively—and consumed large amounts of other media—on the subject, and she quotes heavily. In places this works well, giving a sense of just how pervasive an issue is or in how many works it's reflected. I did end up wishing that fewer of the chapters/essays had taken this rapid-fire structure, with quotation following source following quotations, because it can feel very much like a montage, and I usually prefer to dive deeper into a topic or source (more analysis and fewer examples, I think). The pop culture parts have a very American lens; as someone who is American but is other things as well, I drew some very different conclusions (e.g., from the discussion of Girls vs. Fleabag) than Clein does, but there will be resonance for those whose media consumption is primarily American.
One thing that readers should be mindful of: While Clein makes a concerted effort to avoid potential triggers in the form of numbers and certain details of eating disorders and so on, I'm not sure she ever really manages to write past a level of latent ambivalence about her eating disorder. It's understandable but still a risky place to be writing from, and in places the compulsion to write, or perhaps just to delve into this in a sanctioned way, overrides caution. I don't know how to write about her without making her struggle into a manual or a vision board, writes Clein in a chapter that I can only describe as highly ill advised (and one of the most triggering things I've read in years). But I am going to try to write about her anyway... (loc. 3947*) An interesting read, but one I cannot recommend to anyone with anything other than a very healthy, uncomplicated relationship with their body.
*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
April 1, 2024
I listened to this one on audiobook, which potentially may have skewed my experience of it.
Clein's work is a tangled conglomerate of other's contributions in the fields of science, sociology, and history, with the occasional interjection of her own experiences with an ED. The prose lacked substance, and was largely predicated on ideas that were external to Clein's own analysis. She wallowed in metaphor for longer than necessary, often reverting to another elongated quotation to segue into the next topic. As the work proceeded, I found it to be increasingly disjointed in its focus, looking at trends of the "bimbo," the "disassociative cool girl," and so on. These tropes and their related sources had little connection to the core idea of disordered eating.
Moreover, though all significant weights are redacted, Clein does little to dissuade her readers from the very copy-cat inclinations of disordered eating that she warns against. She often paints her past experiences of disordered eating in a romanticized light. Her mentions of anti-capitalist, anti-racist approaches to thin versus fat dichotomies seem perfunctory, as if checking the box that says, I am politically correct. She briefly touches on her judaism, though chucks it to the wayside for the majority of the following essays. I liked the religious interpretations she took on the cult of EDs, though again, didn't think that was anything groundbreaking for the ongoing discourse.
From her analysis of Fleabag, to the HBO show Girls, to Jennifer's Body, none of her takes are novel, or nuanced. I was also uncomfortable with the extent to which Clein defends platforms like ED twitter or tiktok as places for community, and thus necessary for struggling individuals. While she may have benefitted in some way from the representation, I would argue that the negative encouragement found on these sites outweighs any potential upsides. Her "warnings" about wellbutrin actually read like recommendations. She takes a painfully American-centric take on EDs and lacks the writing skills to execute something that reads beyond the cadence of a hasty Substack essay.
Clein's work is a tangled conglomerate of other's contributions in the fields of science, sociology, and history, with the occasional interjection of her own experiences with an ED. The prose lacked substance, and was largely predicated on ideas that were external to Clein's own analysis. She wallowed in metaphor for longer than necessary, often reverting to another elongated quotation to segue into the next topic. As the work proceeded, I found it to be increasingly disjointed in its focus, looking at trends of the "bimbo," the "disassociative cool girl," and so on. These tropes and their related sources had little connection to the core idea of disordered eating.
Moreover, though all significant weights are redacted, Clein does little to dissuade her readers from the very copy-cat inclinations of disordered eating that she warns against. She often paints her past experiences of disordered eating in a romanticized light. Her mentions of anti-capitalist, anti-racist approaches to thin versus fat dichotomies seem perfunctory, as if checking the box that says, I am politically correct. She briefly touches on her judaism, though chucks it to the wayside for the majority of the following essays. I liked the religious interpretations she took on the cult of EDs, though again, didn't think that was anything groundbreaking for the ongoing discourse.
From her analysis of Fleabag, to the HBO show Girls, to Jennifer's Body, none of her takes are novel, or nuanced. I was also uncomfortable with the extent to which Clein defends platforms like ED twitter or tiktok as places for community, and thus necessary for struggling individuals. While she may have benefitted in some way from the representation, I would argue that the negative encouragement found on these sites outweighs any potential upsides. Her "warnings" about wellbutrin actually read like recommendations. She takes a painfully American-centric take on EDs and lacks the writing skills to execute something that reads beyond the cadence of a hasty Substack essay.
December 31, 2023
Dead Weight is a collection of essays on eating disorders. There are several interesting essays covering topics such as race and sexuality in eating disorder demographics. In the introduction, the author writes that this is a book for those suffering from eating disorders that did not include triggering details. I disagree with this description and found this book to be one of the more triggering books on this topic that I have read. So, while I would recommend this book to an academic studying eating disorders and sociological trends, I would strong advise against those who are in recovery reading this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
August 6, 2024
I am moved, surprised, horrified, hopeful. This book is everything. A feat to write a book about bodies and eating disorders that is expansive where so many others are reductive or limited. I particularly loved her inclusion & analysis of TikToks, Instagram reels, Reddit threads—stuff that might seem lowbrow but is crucial in understanding what is really meant by the “media’s influence� on feelings/assumptions surrounding bodies and food and gender. Required reading!!!!!
Also I think the title is bad. But whatever
Also I think the title is bad. But whatever
December 13, 2024
Harrowing insight into the eating disorder treatment industrial complex (not hyperbole, it really is an industrial complex). Not sure I can agree with everything the author had to say (specifically about eating disorder twitter/social media spaces), but certainly worth reading as a whole and very well researched.
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July 23, 2024I’m still trying to think about how to rate this book. It’s very well written, but I think it falls prey to some spoken-word-esque language that I have a hard time with (my corny detectors are relentless).
This was definitely not an easy book to read and I found myself counting the chapters until I was done, which doesn’t seem like a good sign. In all honesty I think that was because this was a bit too close to home at times and it just felt kind of exhausting to read. Clein is pretty close to my age and it was weird reading about the kind of internet content I consumed as a kid, but spoken about in such an academic tone. Feels a little too soon maybe? But is it ever too soon?
Still, I found the topics covered super interesting. Made me think a lot about treatment for eating disorders and how screwy that system is. This book is very validating if you’ve ever been victimized by Tik Tok for you page’s insistence on sending you workout videos and diet videos. The book made me think about how much we equate health and aesthetics and how those things ought to have nothing to do with each other. It also, unfortunately, kinda made me realize how sensitive I still am to this sort of topic (even if I think of myself/attempt to present myself as above it all).
SO for my fellow people who are still on-the-way-out-of-the-deep-end on the relationship with good end of things, tread with caution. Clein does her best to be tasteful but this book describes a lot of tragic anorexic women in (what I feel) is overly romantic detail. Even though I can tell she’s trying not to.
This was definitely not an easy book to read and I found myself counting the chapters until I was done, which doesn’t seem like a good sign. In all honesty I think that was because this was a bit too close to home at times and it just felt kind of exhausting to read. Clein is pretty close to my age and it was weird reading about the kind of internet content I consumed as a kid, but spoken about in such an academic tone. Feels a little too soon maybe? But is it ever too soon?
Still, I found the topics covered super interesting. Made me think a lot about treatment for eating disorders and how screwy that system is. This book is very validating if you’ve ever been victimized by Tik Tok for you page’s insistence on sending you workout videos and diet videos. The book made me think about how much we equate health and aesthetics and how those things ought to have nothing to do with each other. It also, unfortunately, kinda made me realize how sensitive I still am to this sort of topic (even if I think of myself/attempt to present myself as above it all).
SO for my fellow people who are still on-the-way-out-of-the-deep-end on the relationship with good end of things, tread with caution. Clein does her best to be tasteful but this book describes a lot of tragic anorexic women in (what I feel) is overly romantic detail. Even though I can tell she’s trying not to.
May 30, 2024
soooo many reckons on this so giving it 5 stars for packing heaps of smart unwieldy thoughts into a deeply readable package.
first 30 pages are on 2023 era girlhood discourse that already feel dated/undermine the serious and smart nature of the rest of the book
extremely us centric but nonetheless very interesting (insurance companies are crazy). also drug advertising re SSRIS???? blew me away - she did reckon nz is the only other country to allow drug advertising but i think with pharmac ect comparing the systems is disingenuous but americans can’t help that
very confronting in parts but never gratuitous or indulgent in its violence. i am normally skeptical/a hater of id politics “lived experience� culture but this is one instance where many narratives are held at once quite well, and the sense of sisterhood she personally feels with ED survivors adds a lot
in saying that this definitely gave the sensation of reading about an experience of femininity and feeling like it was absolutely a foreign language??? and normally i’d chalk that up to straightness but she’s queer (shout out) lol
love the whole scale rejection of head-empty-no-thoughts-just-a-girl feminism essay at the end. i love thinking hard about things and so do my smart friends!!!
great read that varies a bit in strength and gets better as it goes on, but is definitely filled with empathy and care.
first 30 pages are on 2023 era girlhood discourse that already feel dated/undermine the serious and smart nature of the rest of the book
extremely us centric but nonetheless very interesting (insurance companies are crazy). also drug advertising re SSRIS???? blew me away - she did reckon nz is the only other country to allow drug advertising but i think with pharmac ect comparing the systems is disingenuous but americans can’t help that
very confronting in parts but never gratuitous or indulgent in its violence. i am normally skeptical/a hater of id politics “lived experience� culture but this is one instance where many narratives are held at once quite well, and the sense of sisterhood she personally feels with ED survivors adds a lot
in saying that this definitely gave the sensation of reading about an experience of femininity and feeling like it was absolutely a foreign language??? and normally i’d chalk that up to straightness but she’s queer (shout out) lol
love the whole scale rejection of head-empty-no-thoughts-just-a-girl feminism essay at the end. i love thinking hard about things and so do my smart friends!!!
great read that varies a bit in strength and gets better as it goes on, but is definitely filled with empathy and care.
July 20, 2024
I've read several books around disordered eating and feel like I learned a lot from this one. A collection of essays that, while disjointed, covers American systemic attitudes towards eating disorders, including the toxicity of diet culture, pop culture's influence, and barriers to treatment. They weren't always super focused on an overarching theme...I don't know if tighter curation could have helped (I admittedly jumped into it before realizing it was essays written over time and collected, rather than a book of essays the author set out to write). It opened my eyes to the inefficacies of treatment centers and diagnostic challenges people face due to medical bias, and I also wanted more research into ED through race and gender lenses. The pop culture discourse involving shows like Girls and Fleabag was interesting to read, though I don't know how much of a clear connection there is between them and ED.
Ultimately, this seems like a book one could pick and choose what essays to read and what to skip. Clein does take measures to reduce triggers, by not including specific details and numbers, but def tread cautiously if you are an ED survivor.
Ultimately, this seems like a book one could pick and choose what essays to read and what to skip. Clein does take measures to reduce triggers, by not including specific details and numbers, but def tread cautiously if you are an ED survivor.
May 25, 2024
This was incredible. I cannot recommend enough to EVERYONE. The only eating disorder book I've read that understands it as a social and political and economic issue rather than an individual one.
Specifically the passages that discuss ED treatment facilities tendencies to identify your "ED voice" as something outside of yourself hit home. My ED voice is of course a part of me because of the environment I grew up in and the world I still live in.
Tons of references to the genius that is Jennifer's Body if that's your thing which why wouldn't it be. 6 stars!
Specifically the passages that discuss ED treatment facilities tendencies to identify your "ED voice" as something outside of yourself hit home. My ED voice is of course a part of me because of the environment I grew up in and the world I still live in.
Tons of references to the genius that is Jennifer's Body if that's your thing which why wouldn't it be. 6 stars!
April 2, 2024
Hmmmm... This had a lot of potential, but ultimately I think it's written for an incredibly specific audience that I can't quite identify. I suppose it is for sufferers of ED, but the content would be highly triggering, despite the author's determination to avoid the "memoir as manual" trap.
It contains a sometimes jarring juxtaposition between casual pop culture references (The O.C., Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, Jennifer's Body, etc) and academic studies and the evolution of the DSM. Ultimately I came away knowing a lot about what's wrong with the treatment of eating disorders in the U.S. but I'm not sure I learned anything about better alternatives and preventative measures.
It contains a sometimes jarring juxtaposition between casual pop culture references (The O.C., Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, Jennifer's Body, etc) and academic studies and the evolution of the DSM. Ultimately I came away knowing a lot about what's wrong with the treatment of eating disorders in the U.S. but I'm not sure I learned anything about better alternatives and preventative measures.
May 4, 2024
ordered this from the queens lib after my roommate told me clein had her book launch at the r*ver. unfortunately this is a lot of rambling on girlhood and society, which is not my truth� she tries to toe too many lines and ends up repeating the same liberal qualifications and disclaimers.
NOBODY ASKED BUT about the subject matter ill just say what ive been saying for years: eating d*sorders would benefit from anon meetings and 12 step programs and in general should be thought of as addictions. and all addiction should be approached philosophically (not through essays, i fear). peace ☮️ to everyone who feels compelled to tackle this topic 🧘🏻♀� 🕯�
NOBODY ASKED BUT about the subject matter ill just say what ive been saying for years: eating d*sorders would benefit from anon meetings and 12 step programs and in general should be thought of as addictions. and all addiction should be approached philosophically (not through essays, i fear). peace ☮️ to everyone who feels compelled to tackle this topic 🧘🏻♀� 🕯�
June 21, 2024
Only a fool doesn’t read a bridgo recommendation. I want to print out the last essay and carry it around with me and make people read it
February 23, 2024
Emmeline Cline takes the reader to the very heart of eating disorders. This is well researched and the writing on point. Prepare to be informed and maybe a little shocked. Trash eating is a new concept for me and with a social hierarchy of eating disorders, I imagine this is at the bottom. Anorexia taking the #1 spot. The need to be accepted and fit an ultra thin normal that is not realistic and perpetuated by the media is at the center of this issue. Skinny does not equal healthy and dieting causes eating disorders. When that sinks in, it makes a lot of sense. The rollercoaster of restricting food intake to reach a desired weight only to binge and gain it all back. Cline described it best as chaos and control. The most frustrating part was insurance. It certainly feels like insurance companies are focused on the dollar and not the burgeoning epidemic of eating disorders. Like a revolving door, patients are admitted and released, but the problem is not addressed, and the patient is deemed uncurable to be released and fend for themselves which often leads to death.
The essays in this book hit a number of topics pertaining to eating disorders and each one of them are informative. I highly recommend if this topic is of interest, or you know someone or you are dealing with an eating disorder.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
The essays in this book hit a number of topics pertaining to eating disorders and each one of them are informative. I highly recommend if this topic is of interest, or you know someone or you are dealing with an eating disorder.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
March 7, 2024
a thought-provoking look at western beauty standards and eating disorders. full of intriguing analysis of pop culture and media's depictions of disordered eating habits, though i do wish that the sources emmeline clein drew from for this book hadn't almost all been so recent. i also do feel like some of the essays included in this book felt out of place and that this book didn't quite stay as strong with its throughline as i had hoped � all the essays were well-done, but the first half of the book or so was more coherent wrt the themes it explored. overall, though, i found this book a compelling exploration of media and culture's impact on women's self-conceptions.
March 27, 2024
loved this- felt very specific and true to girls who grew up learning how to be self destructive on tumblr but I think it has a lot of value outside of just seeing my niche internet experiences in a book. it contextualizes eating disorders within their treatment paradigms, fatphobia, diet culture and the pharmaceutical industry in really interesting ways. it feels like this book was written with care, collectivizing everyone who has experienced disordered eating into a sisterhood instead of being a how-to guide to anorexia.
June 25, 2024
I liked some of these essays and did not like others that felt completely disjointed from the topic but overall I enjoyed my time with this
Despite her best efforts to, I really think it is hard to write anything on the topic of EDs without in someway promoting or glamorizing it or it being triggering so I do say to read this with caution. I had to skip the wellbrutin essay bc it literally read like an advertisement
Despite her best efforts to, I really think it is hard to write anything on the topic of EDs without in someway promoting or glamorizing it or it being triggering so I do say to read this with caution. I had to skip the wellbrutin essay bc it literally read like an advertisement
November 16, 2023
The most interesting part of this entire book on disordered eating is that a lot of the source material is so recent. I feel that a lot of popular books on eating disorders were written so long ago that a lot of them are outdated. In Dead Weight, social media is addressed frequently as it should with how much it can contribute to our reflections on body image.
April 30, 2024
Would be a six star read if i was haley pham. so fucking amazing and insightful and a complete picture of the actual trap it is to be a woman in the modern day and how you're expected to perform as one. my fellow former ed twitter sisters sound off in the comments
April 30, 2024
a few thoughts:
- i would not recommend this book for anyone experiencing disordered eating or easily triggered by romanticizations of descriptions of ED. although clein takes pains to say that that’s not what she’s doing in this book…it’s a tough needle to thread and i don’t think she really does it well. parts of the book more or less feel like a guidebook for people looking for tips to perfect their eating disorders.
- as an aughts-era consumer of thinspo and pro-ana digital content myself, i find her defense of ED twt and tumblr and other digital spaces as places of community to be pretty ill-advised and naive
- casting a lot of blame for the prevalence and glamorization of eating disorders on pop culture and mass media feels so…obvious? and reductive?
- i would not recommend this book for anyone experiencing disordered eating or easily triggered by romanticizations of descriptions of ED. although clein takes pains to say that that’s not what she’s doing in this book…it’s a tough needle to thread and i don’t think she really does it well. parts of the book more or less feel like a guidebook for people looking for tips to perfect their eating disorders.
- as an aughts-era consumer of thinspo and pro-ana digital content myself, i find her defense of ED twt and tumblr and other digital spaces as places of community to be pretty ill-advised and naive
- casting a lot of blame for the prevalence and glamorization of eating disorders on pop culture and mass media feels so…obvious? and reductive?
August 12, 2024
I thought this might be more about diet culture in general from the subtitle, but this is all very focused on disordered eating. I would have liked more essays exploring the social factors that drive people to EDs, like the bit about Christianity/Judaism and the fasting and starving promoted as part of holiness. This otherwise still feels like the author hasn't bought into body positivity and health, but is trying to walk a center line between EDs and being overweight.
March 10, 2024
Required reading for all humans. This book made me feel physically sick, shaky, and teary. “Have you ever seen a girl and wanted to possess her? Not like a man would, with his property fantasies. Possess her like a girl or a ghost of one: shove your soul in her mouth and inhabit her skin, live her life? Then you've experienced girlhood, or at least one like mine.�
May 6, 2024
4.5 rounded up. This was an imperfect and poignant look at eating disorders outside of the narrow clinical bubble they often exist in. Really appreciated the author’s efforts to avoid demonizing and pathologizing and instead looking at unmet needs and pain that leads young women to seek out community in online spaces. Also fuck myfitnesspal!!!!!
November 19, 2023
This is a book, that had profound impact on me and the way I view the relationship with my body. I honestly can’t recommend enough for people trying to go on a journey of self discovery or whom or just interested in better understanding the subject matter.
March 18, 2024
One of the most comprehensive explorations of EDs I've read, and speaks so closely to my experience. Thanks to the podcast Binchtopia for the rec!!
May 23, 2024
Maybe this intro will include useless to you TMI but I came to this book because the topic is where I am right now. I am obsessing about weight. Having moved on from the traditional female experience of toying with an eating disorder in college, I lived decades of only minimally worrying (I'm still a woman in this society, so...). But recently, with getting older I've put on some weight. I decided to make some changes: eat fresher, increase protein, watch calories, try to be more plant based (which is hard when you want to push your protein up), step up with the workouts, attempt intermittent fasting, while still enjoying food (have you seen my instagram? I love food).... and before I knew it I was mildly or intensely obsessed with the whole thing, constantly checking nutritional contents and whether it was okay for me to eat this now or this much. And then I saw this book, it seemingly showing up at the perfect time for me. But what is the perfect book for me?
I feel like the perfect audience for this is exactly like Emmeline Clein herself: female, white, late 20s-early 30s, college educated, at least middle class, with a past heavy on the eating disorder. The more you fit into this demographic, the more this book will likely hit with you. I mean sure, Clein makes an effort, she repeatedly highlights the additional difficulties black women face when struggling with an ED (getting diagnosed, finding treatment, societal judgement: there is a good amount of racism involved as if there ever is a walk of life where society doesn't manage to throw that in), she points out it's not just young women who deal with this. And yet, so often this is very much about her perspective and her experience. She says that this is not just about white girls but writes a lot about the white girl experience. It is more memoir infused, a lot of exorcising personal demons here, and I think because it was titled 'Essays' I had some broader, less self involved expectations.
There were parts where I learnt things, some parts I could personally connect to, some parts where I feel like this book delivered on the title and took broad looks at society, EDs, beauty standards and pressures but too often this fell back into this very personal view, this very one sided POV and at times was very repetitive. So I appreciated the parts that worked for me and I grappled with the parts that didn't. And maybe that's all I could ever expect from a book like this, that some elements will resonate and inform me, and others not so much.
With that I preferred the later chapters much more, some of those because they hit more at what I was hoping to get from this book but also because these looked more at society in wider terms. I felt very validated when she talked about how recent trends of influencers and celebrities claiming to aiming to be healthy as the main goal yet underneath it's the same BS since that somehow still almost always aligns with skinny and losing weight and having the perfect body. I learnt about the term orthorexia and it's recent resurgence and that it is something I might be heading towards if I don't watch out. We get into feminist issues where the sexist society gets blamed for the unrealistic beauty standards it sets up for us, yet I am not sure I 100% agree. While the standards are different, there is also a lot of pressure on men when it comes to looks. I do agree that women are hit harder by this but I believe that society puts a lot of pressure on all of us to be perfect beings. So I think the true issues are more complicated than yelling sexism and patriarchy.
But I learnt a lot about modern culture, things like the pro-ana movement or bimbotok were things I was not familiar with at all (likely showing my age). But I found some of her framing of that questionable. She is very supportive of the pro-ana world, occasionally admits that yes there is a problem but because she experienced support from there in the past defends it to a fault. This defense attitude has also a lot to do with the disastrous stage of treatment options, so I get it, but come on, some nuance would be welcome. I agree though on the point she made about how ridiculous that these teenage (!) girls get villainized for reposting magazine pictures of skinny models: that basically the double standard is in a magazine the photo is beautiful and a body ideal to live up to for women, but when it gets shown in the context of EDs it is dangerous. Says a lot about our society.
I found it shocking but not surprising to learn that American insurance is its own special hurdle: you need to be underweight enough to receive coverage and if that isn't obviously twisted and counterproductive I don't know what is. But also the treatment itself where it rarely receives the same approach as addiction treatments but rather than create communities patients get pitched against each other, are supposed to see each other as enemies so not to enable each other's EDs, again: obviously flawed. They get often taught to mistrust their own feelings and instincts because that is the problem, not the world telling you to be skinny but you having a dismorphed view, which occasionally is true but we all know the double standard out there, of what people say and think about bigger bodies... But I also got frustrated when Clein becries that state of treatment and cites endless sources to support her claim without offering much in alternative options other than the community of pro-ana boards. The ginormous numbers of failure rates and suicidal rates among sufferers speak loudly but I always get annoyed when a non-fiction writer highlights problems without offering much of a solution because to me that seems not much better. Sometimes the writing truly ran in circles in that regard, is likely Clein's own cry for help here.
I think I took enough from this book to value it and I think a lot of aspects will stay in my mind for a long time. But I can't help it, I was frustrated sometimes, I wanted more. But maybe that is just on me. That I was hoping this book could not only give me a hug from people who I don't exactly align with but who I get enough to feel part of. But I wanted it to provide me with a light and a path. And that's a lot to ask, I mean if that was so easy there would hardly be a reason to write this book in the first place. I don't read self help because I firmly believe that 95% of it sucks but I think I wanted something closer to self help from this, which is so not what this book was or should be about. So, sure, some of my issues are mine and not the book's. But in my reviews I always try to reflect my reading experience. I would say if this interests you, sorry, you very much have to read it and form your own opinion. I can only give you this.
3.5*
I feel like the perfect audience for this is exactly like Emmeline Clein herself: female, white, late 20s-early 30s, college educated, at least middle class, with a past heavy on the eating disorder. The more you fit into this demographic, the more this book will likely hit with you. I mean sure, Clein makes an effort, she repeatedly highlights the additional difficulties black women face when struggling with an ED (getting diagnosed, finding treatment, societal judgement: there is a good amount of racism involved as if there ever is a walk of life where society doesn't manage to throw that in), she points out it's not just young women who deal with this. And yet, so often this is very much about her perspective and her experience. She says that this is not just about white girls but writes a lot about the white girl experience. It is more memoir infused, a lot of exorcising personal demons here, and I think because it was titled 'Essays' I had some broader, less self involved expectations.
There were parts where I learnt things, some parts I could personally connect to, some parts where I feel like this book delivered on the title and took broad looks at society, EDs, beauty standards and pressures but too often this fell back into this very personal view, this very one sided POV and at times was very repetitive. So I appreciated the parts that worked for me and I grappled with the parts that didn't. And maybe that's all I could ever expect from a book like this, that some elements will resonate and inform me, and others not so much.
With that I preferred the later chapters much more, some of those because they hit more at what I was hoping to get from this book but also because these looked more at society in wider terms. I felt very validated when she talked about how recent trends of influencers and celebrities claiming to aiming to be healthy as the main goal yet underneath it's the same BS since that somehow still almost always aligns with skinny and losing weight and having the perfect body. I learnt about the term orthorexia and it's recent resurgence and that it is something I might be heading towards if I don't watch out. We get into feminist issues where the sexist society gets blamed for the unrealistic beauty standards it sets up for us, yet I am not sure I 100% agree. While the standards are different, there is also a lot of pressure on men when it comes to looks. I do agree that women are hit harder by this but I believe that society puts a lot of pressure on all of us to be perfect beings. So I think the true issues are more complicated than yelling sexism and patriarchy.
But I learnt a lot about modern culture, things like the pro-ana movement or bimbotok were things I was not familiar with at all (likely showing my age). But I found some of her framing of that questionable. She is very supportive of the pro-ana world, occasionally admits that yes there is a problem but because she experienced support from there in the past defends it to a fault. This defense attitude has also a lot to do with the disastrous stage of treatment options, so I get it, but come on, some nuance would be welcome. I agree though on the point she made about how ridiculous that these teenage (!) girls get villainized for reposting magazine pictures of skinny models: that basically the double standard is in a magazine the photo is beautiful and a body ideal to live up to for women, but when it gets shown in the context of EDs it is dangerous. Says a lot about our society.
I found it shocking but not surprising to learn that American insurance is its own special hurdle: you need to be underweight enough to receive coverage and if that isn't obviously twisted and counterproductive I don't know what is. But also the treatment itself where it rarely receives the same approach as addiction treatments but rather than create communities patients get pitched against each other, are supposed to see each other as enemies so not to enable each other's EDs, again: obviously flawed. They get often taught to mistrust their own feelings and instincts because that is the problem, not the world telling you to be skinny but you having a dismorphed view, which occasionally is true but we all know the double standard out there, of what people say and think about bigger bodies... But I also got frustrated when Clein becries that state of treatment and cites endless sources to support her claim without offering much in alternative options other than the community of pro-ana boards. The ginormous numbers of failure rates and suicidal rates among sufferers speak loudly but I always get annoyed when a non-fiction writer highlights problems without offering much of a solution because to me that seems not much better. Sometimes the writing truly ran in circles in that regard, is likely Clein's own cry for help here.
I think I took enough from this book to value it and I think a lot of aspects will stay in my mind for a long time. But I can't help it, I was frustrated sometimes, I wanted more. But maybe that is just on me. That I was hoping this book could not only give me a hug from people who I don't exactly align with but who I get enough to feel part of. But I wanted it to provide me with a light and a path. And that's a lot to ask, I mean if that was so easy there would hardly be a reason to write this book in the first place. I don't read self help because I firmly believe that 95% of it sucks but I think I wanted something closer to self help from this, which is so not what this book was or should be about. So, sure, some of my issues are mine and not the book's. But in my reviews I always try to reflect my reading experience. I would say if this interests you, sorry, you very much have to read it and form your own opinion. I can only give you this.
3.5*
March 25, 2025
Emmeline Clein steps away from the purely pathological mode of considering disordered eating to instead dissect the subject from a socio-cultural perspective here, considering an array of often overlooked factors: class, race, patriarchal standards, societal pressures, media influences, fatphobia, pharmaceutical corruption, psychiatric neglect and bias, religion etc.
It's a truly thorough look into disordered eating, one that I think is refreshing and necessary. Clein connects many dots, from saints, to the fear of women being 'too much', reductive and contradictory treatment programs, to wellness culture, in order to weave a very compelling argument urging us to consider how multifaceted disordered eating has historically been and continues to be. She questions and turns popular narratives about disordered eating and those with eating disorders on their heads at many points.
My only critique is that I feel the writing on eating disorder forums and the pro-ana community was biased and felt to me like it was written through rose-tinted glasses. While I agree that demonising the people who are driven to those corners of the internet is unhelpful, I think it lacked nuance. We all know just how harmful some of those places can be - we've all stumbled across the posts, intentionally or not. It isn't all a corner of support and refuge - sometimes it is outright fatphobia, hatred and encouraging and triggering others to partake in dangerous acts of self harm. I don't think including this or admitting this would have harmed the books central arguments. For a book that otherwise doesn't shy away from uncomfortable, disturbing elements related to eating disorders, I found the lack of inclusion of the toxicity of some of the communities odd.
Overall this was a really illuminating read read with vital information and worthwhile arguments.
It's a truly thorough look into disordered eating, one that I think is refreshing and necessary. Clein connects many dots, from saints, to the fear of women being 'too much', reductive and contradictory treatment programs, to wellness culture, in order to weave a very compelling argument urging us to consider how multifaceted disordered eating has historically been and continues to be. She questions and turns popular narratives about disordered eating and those with eating disorders on their heads at many points.
My only critique is that I feel the writing on eating disorder forums and the pro-ana community was biased and felt to me like it was written through rose-tinted glasses. While I agree that demonising the people who are driven to those corners of the internet is unhelpful, I think it lacked nuance. We all know just how harmful some of those places can be - we've all stumbled across the posts, intentionally or not. It isn't all a corner of support and refuge - sometimes it is outright fatphobia, hatred and encouraging and triggering others to partake in dangerous acts of self harm. I don't think including this or admitting this would have harmed the books central arguments. For a book that otherwise doesn't shy away from uncomfortable, disturbing elements related to eating disorders, I found the lack of inclusion of the toxicity of some of the communities odd.
Overall this was a really illuminating read read with vital information and worthwhile arguments.
November 25, 2024
This was my first foray into ED literature as someone who has a history of…firsthand experience� and I’m very glad I read it! She’s super insightful and a very talented writer, and I think she does a good job with her ultimate goal of writing about EDs without glamorizing or shaming them. As she mentions, it’s quite the tightrope, and while at the beginning I was ready to dub her “Queen of the caveat� because I felt she was able to include them without inducing an eyeroll but by the end it was laid on a bit thick IMO. I think I agree with her thesis that the right answer is to take care of each other and be angry at the world that made us this way, but sometimes it feels like she rules out all paths forward and leaves us angry and stuck. I also don’t think she scrutinizes sources in her favor as much as she should. In many cases I think she would be fine to omit a quote or two. Overall, incredibly well researched, and I feel oddly proud of her? I can’t wait to see what she writes next!
August 13, 2024
i found this book intriguing, informative, sometimes funny & sad, infinitely relatable. a lot of these essays hit home & gave me a new perspective on a lot of issues surrounding eating disorders, the treatment of them, and the societal impact & perception.
it definitely helps to know a lot of these feelings are shared by others. it makes me feel so silly to spend so much time thinking about my body, how to control & change it, and now spending so much time in recovery for an ED. it's hard out here, but books like this open your eyes.
it was also fairly inclusive which is nice.
it definitely helps to know a lot of these feelings are shared by others. it makes me feel so silly to spend so much time thinking about my body, how to control & change it, and now spending so much time in recovery for an ED. it's hard out here, but books like this open your eyes.
it was also fairly inclusive which is nice.
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