A striking example of a woman's illness, anorexia nervosa has previously been studied in isolation from history and politics. However, Anorexic Bodies explores a set of complex theories which together explain anorexia more adequately. The book examines the premise that the body is a "concept" rather than a simple physical organism and it demonstrates how gender divisions are reflected in current understandings of the body by studying access to women's bodies in rape and representations of women's bodies in pornography. Anorexic Bodies uses original interview material to demonstrate a sociological understanding of the construction of women's bodies in anorexia.

Anorexia is treated as "an extended example" of how women both resist and are constrained by the cultural concept of the female body. Anorexia is examined as a strategy of resistence, which ultimately becomes its own prison. For it seeks to do individually what can only be done done collectively--to change the construction and control of women's bodies.

It will be invaluable reading to medical sociology students, and those studying sociology of the body, women's studies, cultural studies and psychology.</P>