Pursuing Perfection: Eating Disorders, Body Myths, and Women at Midlife and Beyond

In Pursuing Perfection, authors Margo Maine and Joe Kelly explore the emotional, social and cultural factors behind the ongoing epidemic of disordered eating and body image despair in adult women at midlife and beyond. Written from a biopsychosocial and feminist perspective, Pursuing Perfection describes the many issues women encounter as they navigate a rapidly changing culture that promotes unhealthy standards for beauty and appearance. This updated and expanded edition (originally published as The Body Myth: Adult Women and the Pressure to Be Perfect) is a unique guide for anyone seeking practical tools and strategies for adult women looking to establish health and body acceptance.

Margo Maine, PhD, FAED, CEDS, has spent over 35 years treating a broad range of eating disorders and body image issues. In her West Hartford, Connecticut practice, she treats women of all ages, shapes, sizes, cultures, races and ethnicities. A lecturer, consultant and researcher, Dr. Maine is a senior editor of Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention. Additionally, she is a founding member and Fellow of the Academy for Eating Disorders; former vice-president of the Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy, and Action; a founder and senior advisor to the National Eating Disorders Association and the 2015 recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Joe Kelly is a best-selling author, editor, educator, father and grandfather in Emeryville, California. Formerly a Minnesota Public Radio regional News Director, he co-founded the international, award-winning, girl-edited magazine New Moon Girls and the national advocacy nonprofit Dads and Daughters(R). Kelly helps health and education professionals to mobilize and utilize their clients' and students' male loved ones as resources and also coaches men with family members suffering from eating disorders and/or addiction.