April/May 1983 RAIN Page 17 ern New Mexico, developed by six women who combined research and discussions of their personal experiences. Women from Hispanic, Native American, and Anglo cultures participated in the process. The booklet reflects this diversity as well as the spirit of self-help so vital to good health. While the hook describes some of the unpleasant symptoms, it aims to dispel the cloud of embarrassment, fear, and misinformation which has long characterized menopause. Combining essential facts, symptoms, and therapies with discussion of the psychological effects, the pros and cons of estrogen therapy are weighed to provide guidelines for safer use when a woman chooses that option. Alternatives to estrogen are encouraged. Several types of kegel exercises are described as a means of counteracting vaginal atrophy and dryness that sometimes accompanies menopause. Yerbe de Zorillo, an herb recommended by a Santa Fe curandera (healer) may not be easy to find, but most of the herbs and vitamins described in the home remedy section are readily obtainable. Diet, hysterectomy, sterilization, birth control, breast exams, and pap smears are also discussed. Part II offers information for organizing menopause workshops and support groups and includes a bibliography. Personal an- ealotes and friendly drawings contribute to the book’s warm positive tone. —Tevina Benedict Tevina Benedict is a New Mexico transplant who is raising her first child in the rain. The Obsession: Reflections on the Tyranny of Slenderness Kim Chernin Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. 10 E. 53rd St. New York, NY 10022 $4.95,1981, 206 pp. "This is a book about woman’s obsession; in particular the suffering we experience with weight, the size of our body and our longing for food.” The phrase sounds familiar. It has been echoed in any of the hundreds of books available on the newsstands today that address this culture’s Rowing obsession with our bodies. 'The similarity ends there; this book takes us deeper into the meanings of the obsession. As a ttierapist working with women around weight issues and as a woman involved with my own Rowing awareness of the effects of this obsession within myself, I found Chemin’s book refreshing and insightful. She looks for the roots of the problem, asking why are we obsessed, analyzing the ways our culture feeds this obsession and what the impact is on the whole feminine psyche. She states, ".. .a woman obsessed may be experiencing the fact that she feels uncomfortable being female in this culture.” She may also, "regard her emotional life.. .as dangerous, requiring control and careful monitoring.” She is mostly a divided entity, an alien in her own culture and her own body. Chemin drives home the point that the quest for thinness won’t necessarily lead to increased power or fulfillment for women (a common belief among weight watchers and dieters), but rather the quest may create more alienation and separateness, more dependence on the externals which seek to define us in their image of woman. I felt moved to tears, full of rage, and yet hopeful with the sensitive examination and powerful defense of the feminine nature. It is refreshing to explore the motivations and consequences of this insidious and destructive obsession. ’The book seeks to inform and incite its reader to question the things we take for granted. The obsession we, as women, face around our bodies and food needs to be assessed as to its long range effects on the feminine nature in our culture. 'Then questions need to be asked—"Will the obsession with thinness help us accept and learn to love women and their bodies more or will it help us moVe closer to disassociating women from their bodies and thus destroying their spirit all together?” -Jackie Holmes Jackie Holmes, a Portland native, is a therapist in private practice. The Invisible Alcoholic Marian Sandmaier McGraw-HiR Co. 1221 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 $4.95, 1980, 298 pp. 'The Women’s Movement has been the catalyst for women to speak more openly and with more dignity about our problems. The Invisible Alcoholic is a case in point. Previously, women’s problems such as alcoholism, have been treated as less serious or more shameful than men’s problems. Less time, money, and effort have been spent on studying and treating women’s problems, and characteristically, our problems have not been approached from women’s perspectives and life experiences, nor by women themselves. In this book, Sandmaier turns that cont.
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