Reviews tagging 'Violence'

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

16 reviews

mads_jpg's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

I started the audiobook of this and immediately switched to reading a physical copy so I could annotate the hell out of it because it's written so well! 

I went into this book thinking I had a good grip on the general ideas behind body positivity/neutrality and harmful beauty standards but man, the situation is so much worse than I could have ever imagined. Gordon's research combined with her personal experiences are truly eye-opening. I even read the section about planes while on one, and it made me view the situation in an entirely new light. 

Another one to add to the list of "should be mandatory reading for all human beings".

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Classism, Death, Bullying, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Fatphobia, Medical content, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia

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

genesismt's review

challenging emotional informative

5.0

"We will need to retrain ourselves to understand a new, compassionate set of principles that can guide our actions: ...That fatness is not failure and, subsequently, that thinness is not an accomplishment. The size of our bodies is largely beyond our control, and even in the few occasions when it isn't, thinness cannot be a prerequisite for basic respect, dignity, provision of services, or meeting basic needs like getting a job or finding food."

This was so informative and so important!! I feel like this should be required reading...Gordon is a white person, so it is also crucial to include Black and Latinx fat voices in these conversations, but from her perspective she addresses the ways in which fat bias is deeply entrenched in our society and the consequences of weight discrimination on fat individuals. The fact that medications are not as effective for people who are overweight and obese makes me so mad!! Diets literally fail 98% of the time but it is something that is constantly encouraged for people as well, even children, which is heartbreaking. Gordon also addresses the racist origins of the BMI, the exclusion of fat bodies in the body positivity movement and so much more. As the average person's size continues to increase, it is adamant that we address anti-fat violence, and move a step forward from body neutrality and acceptance. I learned so much and related to some of the points discussed, even though I am not a plus sized person, especially when it comes to conversations coming from places of "concern" for my health. As I try to unlearn my own fat bias and have these conversations with my family, it can be difficult but it is important. Highly recommend!!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Bullying, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Medical content, Sexual violence, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Body shaming, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

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

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

annieu's review

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia and Eating disorder

Moderate: Medical trauma, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Rape, Suicide, Violence, and Transphobia

coralcrab77's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia

Moderate: Violence, Medical trauma, and Sexual assault

ashleysimon's review

challenging emotional informative sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Eating disorder, Sexual harassment, and Fatphobia

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

karcitis's review

dark emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Bullying

Moderate: Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Medical content, Violence, Rape, Racism, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Ableism

Minor: Transphobia, Classism, Chronic illness, Cancer, Abortion, Pregnancy, Biphobia, Terminal illness, Lesbophobia, and Homophobia