Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

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

20 reviews

maddramaqueen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

This book rocks.  Literally everyone should at least try to read it.  I recognize that it can be triggering, and it was for me, but especially for straight-size people who have not experienced anti-fat bias on a societal level this is absolutely necessary.  Even as a fat person myself I learned so much about the violence facing those fatter than me that I was entirely unaware of.

If you can't handle the topics covered, I fully understand.  I'm in eating disorder recovery myself and this topic was triggering for me.  But the final chapter is one of the greatest pieces of activist writing I've ever read and I think everyone should read that chapter *at least*.  

Thank you so much for writing this, Aubrey Gordon.  It will be an oft recommended book in my future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Hate crime, Medical content, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Fatphobia, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Ableism, Chronic illness, Drug use, Death, Child abuse, Dysphoria, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Classism, Eating disorder, Domestic abuse, Rape, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Colonisation, Transphobia, Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Stalking, and Terminal illness

ambb's review

informative slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia and Emotional abuse

ellysiap's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Fatphobia, Medical content, Sexual violence, and Eating disorder

evdark's review against another edition

informative sad medium-paced

3.25

There is a fine line between body positivity and endorsing a deadly lifestyle. I do get that the author said that she eats healthy, exercises, and is almost 400 lbs. She cites Lizzo as another person who is "athletic and fat" as proof of her point that you can do everything right and be fat. That did not age well as Lizzo dropped over 100 lbs due to her activity on stage. The part of this book I enjoyed was about how diet culture hurts society and reinforces terrible habits in overweight individuals, barring them from losing weight while also shaming them for it. It probably does mess with the metabolism so much that when you try extreme dieting at a certain weight, you can die trying to lose the weight, too much too fast, too little too late. Another part was how doctors treat overweight and highly obese individuals, which I have experienced even as a "small fat person" (after pregnancy). What I did not enjoy about this book was that this author would probably be happy if every person in the world were fat, based on her manifesto at the back of the book, and that we shouldn't try to improve ourselves but give into that lifestyle and embrace it. That fat people should be celebrated and catered to and embraced as a standard of normality. That's a dangerous mindset to have, especially in light of several body-positive influencers dying due to their weight.

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Content Warnings

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

tree_branch's review against another edition

challenging informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Body shaming, and Bullying

Minor: Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Violence, Sexual violence, Rape, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Eating disorder

dragon_s_hoard's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual harassment, Racism, Self harm, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Sexual violence, Ableism, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Bullying, Eating disorder, Medical content, Misogyny, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Chronic illness, Lesbophobia, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Classism, Transphobia, and Biphobia

thehinkydonut's review

challenging informative

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma and Body shaming

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Cursing, Sexual assault, Sexism, Misogyny, Eating disorder, and Emotional abuse

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

tmchopra's review

challenging informative fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Medical trauma, Eating disorder, and Medical content

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Racism, Mental illness, Homophobia, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Sexism, Misogyny, and Sexual harassment

toffishay's review

challenging emotional informative fast-paced

4.0

A really vulnerable and informative memoir/non-fiction exploration of anti-fat bias in modern Western society, all the legal, social, emotional, interpersonal, and intrapersonal challenges of an obsession with thinness, and what can be done to change the pervasiveness of this issue. This is a quick read and provides awesome resources to learn more. The language and style of prose is also quite lyrical and beautiful, but gets a little repetitive in places with the same phrasing used throughout. Overall, an awesome read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia

Moderate: Racism, Violence, Sexism, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Self harm, Transphobia, Medical content, Bullying, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, and Body shaming