Locker Room Diaries: The Naked Truth About Women, Body Image, and Re-Imagining the "Perfect" Body

Self-confessed "workout junkie" Goldman has written a lively but exhausting book about women's body image and the cult of the locker room. A recovered anorexic, Goldman has an M.A. in public health and writes for the American Medical Association, but you'd hardly know it from the tone of this glib, giggly and also judgmental book. Goldman interviewed members of her high-end Chicago gym, many women of different ages and racial backgrounds, and those close to her age (she's 30-ish) and size mostly sound crass and thin-obsessed. Thankfully, a few older women contribute greater insight. As concerned as Goldman is by female self-loathing and obsession with perfect bodies, she appears to dwell obsessively on other women's bodies in a not particularly kind or sensitive way, launching at one point into a diatribe about the vulgar, unsanitary public rituals she sees women performing in the locker room. Yet she seems equally uncomfortable with the quiet women who dash in and out clad in towels, deeming them "Thoroughly Modest Millies" and regales us with descriptions of her lacy thong underwear. Who can win in this game? Maybe Goldman should have interviewed women who aren't exercise junkies. (June)