Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

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

11 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

alexlily's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

Higher recommend all of Aubrey Gordon's work

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia

Moderate: Body shaming, Mental illness, Bullying, Hate crime, Sexual harassment, Ableism, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Sexual assault

emmaleemay21's review

So triggering. Listening to the horrible abuses people like me face is getting bad for my mental health. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Fatphobia, and Body shaming

Moderate: Ableism and Hate crime

Very bleak descriptions of fat people being abused. Be wary if this hits close to home.

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

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

renyoi's review

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

I read this after listening to Gordon’s podcast, Maintenance Phase, and a lot of the talking points from that seem to be from here. This meant topics were repetitive at points—indeed, they were sometimes repetitive even within the text of the book itself—but still utterly worth knowing and learning about, especially if you are not a fat person. Gordon simplifies issues of feminism and intersectionality to a degree I don’t quite agree with, but her main points—that anti-fat bias plagues every facet of our society and that we need to turn to the lens of justice to rectify that—are necessary and critical for any conscionable person to understand.  I admire this book’s vulnerability and persuasiveness greatly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Bullying

Moderate: Medical trauma and Eating disorder

Minor: Racism, Transphobia, Homophobia, Hate crime, and Misogyny

foreverinastory's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Ableism, Misogyny, Rape, Death, Medical trauma, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Transphobia, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Sexual violence, Bullying, Violence, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Racism, Dysphoria, Chronic illness, and Cancer

tomato_bisque's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad fast-paced

4.5

Using both personal anecdotes and data, Aubrey Gordon weaves together a cohesive intoduction into the ways fatphobia manifests itself in society. I found she was able to put beautifully into words things I have witnessed but have not given much thought to, or was unable to articulate. I would reccomend this book to anyone, but especially people in the medical field. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Hate crime, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Sexual assault

daydreamermoonwalker's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cancer, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Misogyny, Rape, and Sexual harassment

jude7's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

5.0

I found this book through Aubrey's podcast Maintenance Phase. It was really informative and would be a helpful book to show to people who have been misinformed by society and governments about fatness and diets!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Hate crime

Moderate: Sexual harassment