A culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Women's dieting has become what Yale psychologist Judith Rodin calls a 'normative obsession,' a never-ending passion play given international coverage out of all proportion to the health risks associated with obesity, and using emotive language that does not figure even in discussions of alcohol or tobacco abuse. [...] Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women's history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one. (Naomi Wolf)

A culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Women's dieting has become what Yale psychologist Judith Rodin calls a 'normative obsession,' a never-ending passion play given international coverage out of all proportion to the health risks associated with obesity, and using emotive language that does not figure even in discussions of alcohol or tobacco abuse. [...] Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women's history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.

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abuse beauty dieting emotive female given health history international language mad obesity obsession passion play psychologist thinness tobacco using Rodin coverage normative yale

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