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4.46 AVERAGE
4.46 AVERAGE
I love the Maintenance Phase podcast. It is both incredibly informative and entertaining; as a queer person I love having such brilliant queer people available to learn from and admire. I picked up this book because after having spent months listening to Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes I wanted more.
This book is brilliant and painfully sharp. Gordon does not pull any punches, utilising personal experience to illustrate the painful reality of being fat in this world. I might need to go and do some self-comfort by listening to some of my favourite Maintenance Phase episodes just to soften the edges.
This book is brilliant and painfully sharp. Gordon does not pull any punches, utilising personal experience to illustrate the painful reality of being fat in this world. I might need to go and do some self-comfort by listening to some of my favourite Maintenance Phase episodes just to soften the edges.
I was always fat. Even as a child, I was fat. Aubrey does and amazing job a capturing the systemic issues fat people face, but the beauty of this book is in her personal stories that bring those systemic issues into reality. I cried toward the end when she shared her fear, pleading that her doctor see her as a human being. That's the basis of fat liberation...being seen as human. And I love that she discusses the intersectional politics of fatness and how unprocessed privilege holds all liberation movements back. Everyone should read this book. After all, anti-fatness is one of the few bigotries left that is seen as socially acceptable.
Okay. Now that it's not super late and I'm not super tired, here is my review.
Before I say anything else, green flag number 1: this is a book about anti-fatness *that is written by a fat person*, so someone who has actually experienced anti-fatness in their life.
In my opinion, this is a really important read - which is what many other reviewers have said, from what I've seen. This book explores anti-fat bias, concern trolling, healthism, ableism, fatcalling, weight loss, blatant anti-fat actions, and more. Also, the author (she/her) explores some of the intersectionality of anti-fatness, which is great. This novel is a mix between memoir and essay: at the beginning of each chapter, and here and there throughout, Aubrey Gordon presents a situation she has personally faced. Following this, Gordon presents statistics, studies, evidence in general, as well as the lived experiences of other fat people. In general, the writing, in my opinion, allowed for each message to be very easy to grasp.
The book is split into eight chapters:
1. Into Thin Air
2. Becoming an Epidemic
3. What Thinness Takes
4. On Concern and Choice
5. The Desirability Myth
6. Such a Pretty Face
7. First, Do No Harm (as someone who is considering going into medicine, this one was my personal favourite to read)
8. The World to Come
A few trigger warnings are definitely in order, such as descriptions of verbal and physical harassment, some “almond mom” behaviour, obviously descriptions of anti-fatness, and more. (Honestly, I can’t remember all of them.)
The only comment I have to make is that, in certain chapters, the author sometimes strayed from the topic at hand. Sometimes, this made it hard to remember what the overall message of that chapter was. This doesn’t affect the overall message of the novel as a whole, of course, but I wasn’t particularly fond of it. (It just made some of the concepts blend together, rather than being distinguishable in which concepts were explored in which chapters, which is what I usually prefer.)
All in all, I would recommend reading this.
Before I say anything else, green flag number 1: this is a book about anti-fatness *that is written by a fat person*, so someone who has actually experienced anti-fatness in their life.
In my opinion, this is a really important read - which is what many other reviewers have said, from what I've seen. This book explores anti-fat bias, concern trolling, healthism, ableism, fatcalling, weight loss, blatant anti-fat actions, and more. Also, the author (she/her) explores some of the intersectionality of anti-fatness, which is great. This novel is a mix between memoir and essay: at the beginning of each chapter, and here and there throughout, Aubrey Gordon presents a situation she has personally faced. Following this, Gordon presents statistics, studies, evidence in general, as well as the lived experiences of other fat people. In general, the writing, in my opinion, allowed for each message to be very easy to grasp.
The book is split into eight chapters:
1. Into Thin Air
2. Becoming an Epidemic
3. What Thinness Takes
4. On Concern and Choice
5. The Desirability Myth
6. Such a Pretty Face
7. First, Do No Harm (as someone who is considering going into medicine, this one was my personal favourite to read)
8. The World to Come
A few trigger warnings are definitely in order, such as descriptions of verbal and physical harassment, some “almond mom” behaviour, obviously descriptions of anti-fatness, and more. (Honestly, I can’t remember all of them.)
The only comment I have to make is that, in certain chapters, the author sometimes strayed from the topic at hand. Sometimes, this made it hard to remember what the overall message of that chapter was. This doesn’t affect the overall message of the novel as a whole, of course, but I wasn’t particularly fond of it. (It just made some of the concepts blend together, rather than being distinguishable in which concepts were explored in which chapters, which is what I usually prefer.)
All in all, I would recommend reading this.
Nothing short of amazing! One of the best books I’ve read this year.
Read Roxane Gay’s review if you want to know more.
Read Roxane Gay’s review if you want to know more.
Well researched, well written, compelling narrative about our outdated cultural attitudes toward those who are overweight, and the harm of stigmatization.
An extremely healing and important read for everybody. I recommend this as well as Aubrey's podcast Maintenance Phase.
Feels odd to rate non-fiction.... this is a very strong book. If you are new to fat justice this will be a solid introduction; if you are not it is chock full of facts and figures to gently roll out the next time your coworker wants to do diet talk, or you are responsible for the seating arrangements at an event and can demand sturdy chairs without armrests and wide aisles.
And for goodness sake BELIEVE FAT PEOPLE WHEN THEY TELL YOU THEIR EXPERIENCES.
And for goodness sake BELIEVE FAT PEOPLE WHEN THEY TELL YOU THEIR EXPERIENCES.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced