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Imperfect : how our bodies shape the people we become / Lee Kofman.

By: Publisher: South Melbourne, VIC : Affirm Press, 2019Copyright date: ©2019Description: 323 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : portraits ; 24 cmContent type:
  • still image
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 192558481X
  • 9781925584813
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 306.4613 23
Summary: By the time she was eleven and living in Russia, Lee Kofman had undergone several major operations on both a defective heart and injuries sustained in a bus accident. Her body harbours a constellation of disfiguring scars that have shaped her sense of self and her view of the world. But it wasn't until she moved from the Soviet Union to Israel and later Australia that she realised these markings weren't badges of honour to flaunt but were, in fact, imperfections that needed to be concealed. In a seductive mix of memoir and cultural critique, Kofman casts a questioning eye on the myths surrounding our conception of physical perfection and what it's like to live in a body that deviates from the norm. She reveals the subtle ways we are all influenced by the bodies we inhabit, whether our differences are pronounced or noticeable only to ourselves. She talks to people of all shapes, sizes and configurations and takes a hard look at the way media and culture dictates how bodies should and shouldn't be. By turns illuminating, confronting and deeply personal, IMPERFECT challenges us all to consider how we exist in the world and how our bodies shape the people we become.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Book Book Jessie Street National Women's Library General Stacks 306.4613 KOF (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available for reference in the library and ILL 68290

Prepublication record (machine generated from publisher information)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 310-323)

By the time she was eleven and living in Russia, Lee Kofman had undergone several major operations on both a defective heart and injuries sustained in a bus accident. Her body harbours a constellation of disfiguring scars that have shaped her sense of self and her view of the world. But it wasn't until she moved from the Soviet Union to Israel and later Australia that she realised these markings weren't badges of honour to flaunt but were, in fact, imperfections that needed to be concealed. In a seductive mix of memoir and cultural critique, Kofman casts a questioning eye on the myths surrounding our conception of physical perfection and what it's like to live in a body that deviates from the norm. She reveals the subtle ways we are all influenced by the bodies we inhabit, whether our differences are pronounced or noticeable only to ourselves. She talks to people of all shapes, sizes and configurations and takes a hard look at the way media and culture dictates how bodies should and shouldn't be. By turns illuminating, confronting and deeply personal, IMPERFECT challenges us all to consider how we exist in the world and how our bodies shape the people we become.

Text and copyright © Lee Kofman.

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