zoiejanelle's review

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emotional informative reflective fast-paced

4.5

with the context that i am a huge maintenance phase fan, i must rate this 4.5 stars instead of 5 simply because i felt that 80% of the book was a retelling of past maintenance phase episodes. i have learned so much from Aubrey Gordon and i am still so glad to have read this book. i really appreciate the personal anecdotes that served as the through line for the entire book, and i found a handful of chapters to be extremely informative and new. 

good elements: 
the sections on feminist theory, race, and government intervention were the redeeming qualities for me. i felt like i had really clear takeaways from these sections that i could reflect on and use to better myself/work on my internal struggles with anti-fatness and racism. the final chapter was extremely reflective and hopeful, though, despite the insurmountable and overwhelming evidence of anti-fatness in our culture that is explained throughout the book. i felt that this work was an actionable, interesting, affirming, and informative read overall. 

not so good elements: 
i believe she harped on the Body Positivity movement a LITTLE too much, but i understood why the angle was important. i also felt that her perspective skewed very left-leaning, which is not a bad thing in and of itself, but if this book was supposed to be accessible and introductory to all readers, it would definitely lose the more conservative (specifically anti-regulation) crowd simply from implicit bias. i wanted to dive a little deeper into why government intervention and regulation are important considerations and what that looks like EXACTLY, but i realize that those subjects may be better explored in another book. 

i would still recommend this book to anyone just starting out in their fat liberation journey! 

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maryellen's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad

5.0

This book is heartbreaking, but so, so important. 

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karcitis's review

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dark emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

4.75


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foreverinastory's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

Everyone needs to read this!!! Especially if you are not fat.

CWs: Fatphobia, body shaming, medical trauma, eating disorder, medical content, sexual harassment, bullying, ableism, misogyny, hate crime, sexual violence, threats of rape, sexism, emotional abuse, violence, gaslighting, death, transphobia/transmisia, classism. Moderate: queerphobia/queermisia, racism, dysphoria, chronic illness, cancer. 

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daydreamermoonwalker's review

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challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

This was a fantastic introduction to fatphobia and body justice. I loved the author's mix of personal experiences and research based argument. I also appreciated how she made sure to include poc, queer, trans, and disabled people in her arguments, as any conversation on body justice that doesn't include all bodies is incomplete. 

I think that everyone should read this book, especially if you're just starting to learn about these things. 

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kukushka's review

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challenging emotional informative inspiring fast-paced

5.0


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skudiklier's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

I regularly read books that I think everyone should read, but this is one I know I'll be recommending for a long, long time, to as many people as I can. I've followed Aubrey Gordon's work for years, and have been convinced of her positions for a while now, but this book lays out everything in such a clear, damning way. This book answers the questions I haven't known how to when having arguments with other straight-size people about anti-fat bias, and addresses everything you may think to ask about. This book should be required reading for everyone, but *especially* those going into the medical field in any way. 

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