ABSTRACT
In her review of The Owl was a Baker’s Daughter, Thelma Bryant summarizes Woodman. She begins: “Certainly not eating, as in anorexia nervosa, becomes a form of suicide and compulsive overeating to the point of obesity may be considered another form of suicide, figurative if not literal” (Bryant, 1981, p. 27). I see again the equation of obesity with compulsive overeating and the comparison with anorexia. Anorexia is a disorder, an effort to escape the body, to rise above it; obesity is not. Obese is a body type. Not only that, but recent research finds: “The science around obesity does support the contention of so many people that in spite of a healthy diet and getting exercise, they continue to gain weight” (Sharma, 2011). In fact, one can be fat and anorexic. And what is this equation of becoming fat with a death wish as if being fat is a choice?
