Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon

39 reviews

alphawaffle's review

informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism and Fatphobia

hwills5's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Sexual harassment, and Eating disorder

Minor: Domestic abuse, Body shaming, Ableism, and Medical trauma

stevia333k's review against another edition

informative inspiring tense

4.5

This is a good book when I'm trying to get a different angle on conversion torture because this book is geared for the intersection of fat activism & feminism. i recommend this book. basically, screw the myth of willpower. i would say the book is scary with its descriptions of street harassment & assault, but there's a sort of horror of oppression that's alluded to but not explicitly gotten to, even though there is a lot of connections talked about throughout the book. that being said i'm adding these next 2 paragraphs in order to help synthesize what i got from this book with other information i've seen, especially since i haven't read like academic journals about fat rights, fat liberation, fat studies, etc. while i have marked it with spoiler formatting, please note that i have added information that are from other sources.

That being said, I feel like the book has a lot of emphasis on hatred against fat people, when i noticed that a lot of the bullying i faced in school was connected to people trying to assimilate & suck up to the teachers. it's the trying to get closer to enclosured power as opposed to breaking that privatization & getting it distributed equitably.

like there's 2 things i think of at least: the military wanting a one-size-fits-all outfit to make gear standardized (they ended up having to make 3 sizes), and how fatness is used to play into desireability politics to cover up how white patriarchs raped black perceived-females. like, i sense those were meant to be simmering in the background, (we literally started out with how fatphobia is connected to militarism, and how fatphobia is compared to an "epidemic" like how bourgeois depictions of famine refugees as zombies & "great replacement" canard works with settler colonizers. but again, these are left lower-key.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Hate crime, Sexual harassment, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, War, Ableism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Grief, Stalking, Violence, Bullying, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Rape, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Medical content, Racism, and Sexism

massivepizzacrust's review

emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

I should say I'm not really who this book is about, as a straight-sized person. Though I've had plenty of bad experiences related to my weight, including a doctor telling me that just in case I was planning on being pregnant soon, I should really consider losing weight (I was in college and saw her for an ear infection), I've never had to deal with abuse from strangers on the street or being escorted off a plane. Reading what the author goes through on a regular basis made me so angry. 

I think a lot of people would benefit from reading this book, and maybe afterwards we could stop holding on to harmful beliefs that only make people miserable, not healthy and definitely not thin. It's seriously disheartening how many people still believe being fat is a matter of willpower and discipline. I've had a lot of great conversations with people in my life while and after reading Aubrey's book, and I feel empowered to have more with the great resources provided. 

On top of that, this was just a really engrossing audiobook to listen to. Heartbreaking but also funny and relatable, it was a really enjoyable experience (upsetting topic aside). Highly recommend! That said, please be aware of any content warnings you might need. You do directly read things people have said or done to Aubrey and it can be upsetting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Bullying, Fatphobia, Ableism, and Body shaming

dionnesims's review

emotional informative fast-paced

4.0

I learned so much reading this. I'm encouraged to continue my body justice journey, and also like "god, things are STILL so fucked up." 4 stars because the flow was disjointed at times and read more like a trivia fact sheet than cohesive chapters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Medical content, Ableism, Bullying, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Sexism, Violence, Body shaming, Medical trauma, and Mental illness

maryellen's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad

5.0

This book is heartbreaking, but so, so important. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Fatphobia, Medical trauma, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Medical trauma, Eating disorder, Cancer, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Ableism, and Classism

emireadsstuff's review

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Sexual violence

Minor: Death, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Ableism, Bullying, Body shaming, and Eating disorder

redefiningrachel's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Ableism, Bullying, Racism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Medical trauma, and Misogyny

Moderate: Sexual violence, Chronic illness, Classism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Abortion and Pregnancy

murryloub's review

funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

EVERYONE needs to read this book. Thin people, health care providers, airline employees, EVERYONE. It debunks & points out the harm of diet culture & fatphobia. Also check out Maintenance Phase podcast for more awesome content.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia

Moderate: Ableism and Eating disorder

sincerelyj's review

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia and Ableism