Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

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

10 reviews

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.

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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

kaynova's review against another edition

informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

Chapter 3 and Chapter 6 ruined me, in the best ways possible. This book has challenged my own beliefs, or at least what EYE thought was my beliefs, into what needs to be done to reform and reshape a system that was never with me in mind and how to navigate these spaces without conforming to those values. I was actually working out when I was reading Chapter 3 and it made me sit down and rethink what is the purpose of exercise when I have always been sought out as black queer fat person who needs tp "lose weight" or "reframe your shape to be more curvy". This book pushes the envelope on current mindsets and narratives that make us believe one thing because it's more acceptable, not remembering or knowing that it is harmful and extremely anti-black and anti-fatness. Fatphobia does align with anti-blackness and transphobia, especially for black fat trans bodies and Da'Shaun L. Harrison does a phenomenal job of informing the readers of this while piecing other great works and articles to back their claims and findings. Because of the multiple name drops they put in the book, my TBR has grown to learn more about black bodies, especially black fat bodies when I, myself, have these same identities yet never accessed these works. I can't wait to learn more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Fatphobia, Transphobia, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Gun violence, and Dysphoria

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

4.5

TW: Police brutality, murder of fat Black people

Belly of the Beast : The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness is a short book but it's still really powerful. There was a chapter on policing the fat Black body and police brutality that I had to skip for my own mental health, as I have a personal fear of police brutality after suffering from traumatic events at the hands of police. I can't say much about that chapter because I didn't finish it, however , the rest of the book was really good. 

I wish there was a list of trigger warnings somewhere in the book, that was my only issue

I'm giving this a 4.5 out of 5 stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Racism, Slavery, Transphobia, Child death, Classism, Fatphobia, and Medical trauma

eliya's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

fantastic read. informative and not too dense to where it is difficult to process the information. i learned so much. de’schaun harrison writes in a way that is conversational yet obviously so informative. it felt like i was listening to one of my really smart friends talk. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Pedophilia, Gun violence, Genocide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, Medical trauma, Racism, Misogyny, Death, Violence, Slavery, Racial slurs, Adult/minor relationship, Medical content, Fatphobia, Sexism, Physical abuse, Transphobia, Homophobia, and Hate crime

sandandstars's review

dark emotional informative reflective

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Medical trauma and Adult/minor relationship

remimicha's review

fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Body shaming, Medical content, Police brutality, Sexism, Genocide, Colonisation, Fatphobia, Racism, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Medical trauma, Death, and Classism

zombiezami's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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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

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

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

becksusername's review

challenging informative fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Body shaming, Colonisation, Homophobia, Misogyny, Fatphobia, Medical trauma, Racism, and Police brutality