A deeply honest investigation of what it means to be a woman and a commodity from Emily Ratajkowski, the archetypal, multi-hyphenate celebrity of our time.
Emily Ratajkowski is an acclaimed model and actress, an engaged political progressive, a formidable entrepreneur, a global social media phenomenon, and now, a writer. Rocketing to world fame at age twenty-one, Ratajkowski sparked both praise and furor with the provocative display of her body as an unapologetic statement of feminist empowerment. The subsequent evolution in her thinking about our culture’s commodification of women is the subject of this book.
My Body is a profoundly personal exploration of feminism, sexuality, and power, of men’s treatment of women and women’s rationalizations for accepting that treatment. These essays chronicle moments from Ratajkowski’s life while investigating the culture’s fetishization of girls and female beauty, its obsession with and contempt for women’s sexuality, the perverse dynamics of the fashion and film industries, and the grey area between consent and abuse.
Nuanced, unflinching, and incisive, My Body marks the debut of a fierce writer brimming with courage and intelligence.
(P)2021 Macmillan Audio
Emily Ratajkowski is an acclaimed model and actress, an engaged political progressive, a formidable entrepreneur, a global social media phenomenon, and now, a writer. Rocketing to world fame at age twenty-one, Ratajkowski sparked both praise and furor with the provocative display of her body as an unapologetic statement of feminist empowerment. The subsequent evolution in her thinking about our culture’s commodification of women is the subject of this book.
My Body is a profoundly personal exploration of feminism, sexuality, and power, of men’s treatment of women and women’s rationalizations for accepting that treatment. These essays chronicle moments from Ratajkowski’s life while investigating the culture’s fetishization of girls and female beauty, its obsession with and contempt for women’s sexuality, the perverse dynamics of the fashion and film industries, and the grey area between consent and abuse.
Nuanced, unflinching, and incisive, My Body marks the debut of a fierce writer brimming with courage and intelligence.
(P)2021 Macmillan Audio
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Reviews
Emily has captured-with the acuity of an early Joan Didion investigating the culture of California-the complicated terrain of having a body people want to sell and having her own agenda she refuses to give up. Her prose is by turns honey smooth and vicious, uproarious and wounded. She knows the pain that lives in every woman and she isn't afraid to link arms and say she's been there, and that it hurts. This is the book for every woman trying to place their body on the map of consumption vs control, and every woman who wants to better understand her impulses. It left me much changed.
These powerful essays mark a blazing, unexpected literary debut. Emily Ratajkowski interrogates beauty, sex, power, objectification, fame, and betrayal-both by self and other-with lucidity and scorched-earth honesty. I read these pages, breathless with recognition, and the thrill of reading a new voice telling it like it is.
Emily Ratajkowski's first essay collection needs to be read by everyone. She explores body politics - and the politics of her body - through a uniquely feminist lens in stories that are both page-turning and moving as hell
This irresistibly titled debut from supermodel turned writer Emily Ratajkowski fills in some of the story of just how Ratajkowski came to have one of the most famous faces in the world. But more than that, the book is invested in probing what it means to be in possession of such a face. My Body is a memoir, but it's also-like Sweetbitter or In the Land of Men-a slow, complicated indictment of a profession and the people who propel it. Ratajkowski doesn't so much direct blame at any one person or organization as paint a personal picture of what it was like for her to be young, naive, ambitious, and smart-and to feel reduced, far too often, to a collection of body parts. The book will be alluring to anyone who wants to know what it was like to dance in Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" (the cringey video that made Ratajkowski a household name) or what it was like to act alongside Ben Affleck in Gone Girl, but it will deliver a more nuanced and introspective rendering of her interior than those who come to it with those surface interests might expect.
Raw, nuanced and beautifully written. A moving and enlightening experience to join a woman openly exploring such deep parts of her physical self via the written word. A truly impressive debut
Essential reading
My Body is an excellent - if we excuse the pun - body of work. Ratajkowski writes with curiosity, intellect and acute awareness... What may surprise readers is not so much the quality of the prose, which is excellent, but that it is not an easy, pop-feminism read. It's a searingly personal piece, which frequently asks more questions than it answers
When her gaze is on herself it is superb. My Body is the end of Ratajkowski's disassociation. She doesn't answer the question: what is a woman for? How can she? It is a universal question. But at least she asks it, and it feels revolutionary
A quietly furious disquisition on flesh and capitalism
Emrata's voice... carries huge weight
These well-written, thought-provoking essays are Emily's way of reasserting her control. They make for fascinating, if depressing, reading
Ratajkowski... writes intimately... at time remarkably candid and raw
A thought-provoking read body shaming and what empowerment really means
An honest and thoughtful first-hand take on the patriarchy and commodification of the fashion industry
Ratajkowski writes knowingly about the misogyny that is fundamental to the industry
Dazzling
Model and actress Emily Ratajkowski's compelling essay collection deep-dives feminism, sexuality and power
The skill of this book is in the way that Ratajkowski manages to cast her experiences in the glitter-plated hills of Hollywood and LA as entirely relatable which, all things considered, is quite a feat
Ratajkowski offers a fresh perspective on an age-old problem
I admire and envy her artistry
Ratajkowski's feelings of shame and embarrassment after being sexually assaulted are movingly portrayed
Well worth reading
A talented writer
Ratajkowski delves into society's obsession with image and celebrity
My Body has become one of the defining titles of 2021 exploring the uncomfortable and ever-shifting space that commodifies and exploits women's bodies with no easy answers
It's really interesting. Emily says things that a lot of us wouldn't say about Instagram - how she thinks about what she posts because of the likes that she gets and how that can mentally control you. It's very honest and very well-written. Sometimes when you see someone beautiful like Emily, you assume that you know her life [but you don't]
A fascinating read
The essays in My Body are an effort to grapple with the themes of power and control in a society where the female body - or at least one that looks like hers - is a valuable commodity
My Body is both an acknowledgement and a lament that [Emily's] physique and beauty are at the heart of her fame and success
A brilliant, beautiful read
A raw, powerful and reassuring read
My Body is genuine, powerful, and often eerily relatable
There's no winning, but perhaps that means there's no real losing either: Any art, any writing, any attempt to detangle ourselves from the cruel stagnation of body-shaming is progress. My Body doesn't cut as deep as I want, but it cuts all the same
If you read (and liked) her hugely popular essay for The Cut last year, then model Emily Ratajkowski's new book is sure to tickle your fancy too
Many stories are heartbreaking
Ratajkowski, now 30, writes intimately and her essays are lucid
The essay provokes an interesting debate on image ownership in an age where we constantly post ourselves online; who owns a photo - the subject or the model?
Ratajkowski takes a subject that has obsessed tabloid media for years
A compelling portrait of loneliness, loss and the spiritual cost of choosing to pick up the tools you were handed to play by someone else's rules
An accomplished debut
An eye-opening read
In her thoughtful essay collection, Ratajkowski discusses the power and vulnerability of beauty, her relationship with her mother, and her experience of sexual violence and having her image exploited by men
These well-written essays are Emily's way of reasserting control and are thought-provoking reading
A deeply honest investigation into what it means to be a woman