Appetites: Why Women Want

222 Pages·2003·10.32 MB·English

by  Caroline Knapp

APPETITES
ALSO BY CAROLINE KNAPP
DRINKING.- A LOVE STORY
PACK OF Two: THE INTRICATE
BOND BETWEEN PEOPLE AND DOGS
ALICE K's GUIDE TO LIFE:
ONE WOMAN'S QUEST FOR SURVIVAL,
SANITY, AND THE PERFECT NEW SHOES
APPETITES
WHY WOMEN WANT
CAROLINE KNAPP
COUNTERPOINT
A MEMBER OF THE PERSEUS BOOKS CROUP
NEW YORK
Copyright © 2003 by Caroline Knapp
Published by Counterpoint,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of
this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical
articles and reviews. For information, address Counterpoint, 387 Park
Avenue South, New York, NY 10016-8810.
Set in 11 -point Goudy
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Knapp, Caroline, d. 2002
Appetites : why women want / Caroline Knapp.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-58243-225-2 (alk. paper)
1. Knapp, Caroline, d. 2002—Health. 2. Anorexia nervosa—
Patients—United States—Biography. 3. Appetite. I. Title.
RC552.A5 K636 2003
362.1'9685262'0092—dc21
2002152118
03 04 05/10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Herzog
And for Roxanne, Zoe, and Hallie
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CONTENTS
Prologue ix
Introduction 1
Add Cake, Subtract Self-Esteem 22
The Mother Connection 54
I Hate My Stomach, I Hate My Thighs 83
From Bra Burning to Binge Shopping 119
Body As Voice 162
Swimming Toward Hope 179
Epilogue 193
Notes 200
Bibliography 211
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PROLOGUE
APPETITE BY RENOIR
T
A HHE WOMEN LINGER at the water's edge, and they are stun-
ning in the most unusual way: large women, voluptuous, abundant,
delighted. They lounge along the river bank, they lift their arms to-
ward the sun, their hair ripples down their backs, which are smooth
and broad and strong. There is softness in the way they move, and
also strength and sensuality, as though they revel in the feel of their
own heft and substance.
Step back from the canvas, and observe, think, feel. This is an im-
age of bounty, a view of female physicality in which a woman's
hungers are both celebrated and undifferentiated, as though all her ap-
petites are of a piece, the physical and the emotional entwined and
given equal weight. Food is love on this landscape, and love is sex,
and sex is connection, and connection is food; appetites exist in a full
circle, or in a sonata where eating and touching and making love and
feeling close are all distinct chords that nonetheless meld with and
complement one another.
Renoir, who created this image, once said that were it not for the fe-
male body, he never could have become a painter. This is clear: there
is love for women in each detail of the canvas, and love for self, and
there is joy, and there is a degree of sensual integration that makes you
want to weep, so beautiful it seems, and so elusive.