Reviews

Body Outlaws: Rewriting the Rules of Beauty and Body Image by Ophira Edut, Rebecca Walker

chandraleereads's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

cysherer's review

3.0

While I enjoyed getting a primary account perspective on the late-90's/early 00's body positivity and health at every size movement, I found a great deal of the advice and wisdom offered in this collection to be incredibly troubling given a 2018 body positivity perspective. The obsession of many authors with a somewhat-disguised-but-still-a-diet diet as the answer to their disordered eating troubles screams improper and incomplete treatment. Additionally, one of the male authors included (Chris Godsey) spends the entirety of his 12 page article mansplaining his poor self-esteem and then semi-covertly insulting his wife. The first several articles I read made me hopeful, but the last third of the book generally took me much longer to get through because the authors included simply did not provide decent advice. I would love to see a similar collection filled with writings from contemporary Health At Every Size activists to see how it compares.

Overall: A pretty mixed bag of great, good, decent, bad, and horrible. I thought it was valuable for the perspective, but I won't feel the need to read most of the articles again.