SUMMARY of "Too Close to the Bone: The Historical Context of Women's Obsession with Slenderness" author: Roberta Seid

In her essay, "Too Close to the Bone: The Historical Context for Women's Obsession with Slenderness", Roberta Seid explores the ever-changing standards Americans hold for women's bodies. She compares our obsession with thinness to a religion. If we follow the rules of the religion, even if those rules resemble a sickness, we will live long, happy, healthy lives. If we do not, we are certainly destined to failure. <Tab/>Seid asserts …

…something that we should avoid. <Tab/>The author also claims that this "new religion" is misguided and destructive. Our main concerns should be ethics, relationships, and community responsibilities, not our bodies and food. She concludes that we must "restore a humanistic vision in which self-improvement means cultivating the mind and enlarging the soul, developing generosity, humor, dignity, and humility; living more graciously with biology, again, and death; living with our limitations."