Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun Harrison

7 reviews

monstrouscosmos's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

definitely a hard listen, but I'm glad to have done it. while there is some historical rooting I appreciate that it mostly stayed in the realm of contemporary experience (the author's own and those of others). I think it's a necessary read for anyone interested in embodied experiences broadly (but esp along intersections of race, gender, and age). 

I did read the content warnings on Storygraph, but I really would have benefitted from content notes with chapters at the beginning of the book or at the beginning of chapters. I still would have listened, but I'd have been better prepared to do so. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Death, Eating disorder, Ableism, Body shaming, Murder, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Police brutality, and Racism

Moderate: Transphobia, Colonisation, Classism, and Dysphoria

breadbummer's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Take care with this one; this should be required reading for everyone, but it's incredibly hard-hitting. I'm sure this topic can be, by absolutely ANY means, completely covered in this short read/listen, but Harrison provides a hell of a lot of information on the topic. Their dedication to the topic is also very noticeable in how they write which, as someone who has had to read some of the driest academic texts imaginable, I appreciate tremendously.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Police brutality, Racism, Dysphoria, Murder, Fatphobia, and Hate crime

Moderate: Child abuse, Colonisation, Pedophilia, Slavery, and Transphobia

Minor: Confinement, Eating disorder, and Medical trauma

sandandstars's review

dark emotional informative reflective

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Racism, Police brutality, and Child abuse

Moderate: Medical trauma and Adult/minor relationship

zombiezami's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Racism, Fatphobia, and Police brutality

Moderate: Child abuse, Rape, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Sexual content, Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Pedophilia

Minor: Blood, Suicide, and Colonisation

Eugenics

wetdirtreads's review

challenging emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

Belly of the Beast is an incredibly concise, yet deeply thorough and nuanced exploration of how anti-fatness as anti-Blackness is constructed & violently enforced. Harrison focuses on how desirability politics, healthism, hyper-sexualisation & in/visibility are deployed under white supremacy (& specifically anti-Blackness) to produce & impose anti-fatness as anti-Blackness. 
 
Immaculately woven through this investigation is an analysis of how anti-fatness as anti-Blackness manifests across diverse experiences of gender, transness, and disability. The result is a refreshing, much-needed & well overdue fill for so many gaps in existing fat literature. 

I really can't overstate how impressive it is for a 109-page book to cover so much ground without sacrificing any complexity or integrity. I’ll admit, when I first started the book, I felt a bit unsure about the in-depth explanation of sociological concepts & key terms. I wondered whether it was useful, or just academic waffle. I quickly found, though, that it was not only useful, but imperative to the book’s accessibility, nuance, & simultaneous huge scope & brevity. 
 
There is no one I wouldn’t recommend this book to. However, I think it’s a particularly important read for white fat folks whose fat activism lacks a racially aware & critical lens. And I don’t just mean awareness of how fatphobia impacts Black folks differently. I mean how fatphobia is a direct product of anti-Blackness that largely impacts people based on their perceived proximity to Blackness, and thus, perceived distance from humanness. 
 
I am so grateful for this book. It is a generous offering that provides an opportunity for fat studies and fat literature to steer in a crucial direction. Belly of the Beast, along with other critical fat Black texts, also provides fertile ground for other localised contexts and experiences to be thoroughly and appropriately engaged. I would love to see the wisdom of this book applied to other Black contexts beyond Turtle Island (or the so-called united states/north america).

(Review initially posted on Instagram)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Racism, Death, Fatphobia, and Gun violence

Moderate: Genocide, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Ableism, Murder, Slavery, and Transphobia

Minor: Colonisation, Dysphoria, and Religious bigotry

lettuce_read's review

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual violence, Ableism, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, and Fatphobia

azariamckay's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

This book was such an amazing read! The writing is accessible and Da’Shaun Harrison blew me away with their expanses on anti-fatness, anti-blackness, gender, and the patriarchy. I loved this book so much and would absolutely encourage any and everyone to read it. This should be required reading in academic spaces!

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Transphobia, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, and Eating disorder

The trigger warnings I added for the book are just to let folks know Da’Shaun briefly touches on these topics in order to gain further context for their main argument in the book. These content warnings are not to say the topics are explicitly detailed in the book, just that there is mention for furthering the main points of the book.