Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'

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

19 reviews

qubilahshabazz's review

emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.75

Really incredible book. I love the way the author connects the dots and really underscores how anti-Blackness and anti-fatness are one in the same. I appreciated hearing more about the fat Black trans masc experience and I also appreciated the ways in which the author noted how society feminizes and masculinizes bodies depending on whether you’re thin or fat or dark skin or light or white. Really really critical stuff in this book. Highly recommend it to anyone who is trying to make sense of desirability politics within the context of Blackness and fatness.

I wish the text was a little longer hence my 4.75 rating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Fatphobia, Racism, and Transphobia

arsenic_'s review

informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Fatphobia, Transphobia, Murder, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Xenophobia, Medical trauma, Racial slurs, and Sexual violence

chaoticnostalgia's review

informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Transphobia, Fatphobia, Police brutality, Violence, and Racism

Moderate: Racial slurs

random19379's review

dark emotional informative fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexism, Body shaming, Racial slurs, Transphobia, and Rape

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)

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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

katsmedialibrary's review

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Racism, and Transphobia

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!

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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.

thefatpaperback's review

informative fast-paced

5.0

This is a necessary read for anyone wanting to learn about anti-fatness, anti-Blackness, body liberation, body sovereignty, and the like. Take your body politics to the next level with this short but powerful read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Racism, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Ableism, Death, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, and Transphobia

demo's review

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Murder, Police brutality, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual assault and Transphobia

Minor: Genocide