Explores why women feel the way they do about their minds and bodies, specifically highlighting the notions that thinness is beauty and that a woman's body is more important than her mind.

A cult grows in America -- Men and women : mind and body -- Theres's no business like the body business : fitness and cosmetic surgery -- Becoming a certain body -- Joining the cult of thinness -- From disorderly eating to eating disorder : the cultural context of anorexia and bulimia -- New recruits for the cult of thinness : young girls, men, and ethnic women -- Breaking free from the cult of thinness.