Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

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

54 reviews

maddy4prezident's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Wow...this book was exceptional in every way. It was well written, thought-provoking, challenging, and inspiring. It did not shy away from calling out anti-fat biases or making the reader sit with their discomfort. Roxanne Gay described the book as "required reading" in her blurb, and I truly cannot agree more. If you only ever read one nonfiction book in your life, let it be this one.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Eating disorder, Bullying, Classism, Medical trauma, Fatphobia, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Body shaming

orlagal's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Brilliant book to aid in your anti-fat bias education! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Misogyny, Blood, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Addiction, Alcohol, Grief, Medical content, Body shaming, Violence, Child abuse, Classism, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Bullying, and Vomit

keetham's review against another edition

informative inspiring medium-paced

4.75

Good book, very helpful info. I listen to her podcast though (Maintenance Phase) so not a lot was particularly new 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Bullying, Ableism, Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia

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

ellysiap's review against another edition

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

emmaleemay21's review against another edition

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.

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

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