| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 87.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 198 words from this article are provided below; about 370 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 87.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls. By Joan Jacobs Brumberg. (New York: Random House, 1997. xxxiv, 267 pp. Cloth, $25.00, isbn 0-679-40297-7. Paper, $13.00, isbn 0-679-73529-1.)

Joan Jacobs Brumberg argues that today's female adolescents internalize potent pressures toward beauty and sex appeal. Granted, others worry with her. Brumberg's brilliant contribution is to historicize this high-stakes problem. 1

Looking back 150 years, Brumberg points out that adolescents have reached menarche progressively earlier, from fifteen to just over twelve on average. Yet, now that girls mature younger, they receive less adult guidance, mentoring, and protection. Our modern openness about once-taboo subjects has not released girls from cultural control: instead, external rather than moral qualities constitute girls' self-worth. Starting in the 1920s, education about menstruation focused on hygiene and tidy appearance, not fertility. Well-lit, mirrored bathrooms made girls more attentive to pimples. Movies, adolescent magazines, radios, and automobiles roared in, as girls shed corsets, long skirts, long hair, and body hair. The calorie discovered, systematic dieting began its tenacious reign. Flapper girls learned to police their newly visible bodies to stricter cultural standards. When 1950s sensibilities spotlighted the breasts, girls obligingly sought the voluptuous ideal. . . .

There are about 370 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.