Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

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

42 reviews

genesismt's review against another edition

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

ashwaar's review against another edition

challenging informative medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Fatphobia, Misogyny, and Bullying

Moderate: Sexual harassment and Sexual assault

Minor: Homophobia and Toxic friendship

bek_p87's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring

5.0

I need EVERYONE to read this book. I especially need every one of my colleagues in the medical profession to read this - and then re-read chapter 7 "First, Do No Harm" until it sinks in and changes the rampant anti-fat bias in medicine.

Sometimes I read books that are critical of the medical profession and have a knee-jerk "not all doctors" reaction - but not this time. As a fat woman and a GP, I know DAMN WELL how many - not all, but TOO F*CKING MANY - doctors view and treat fat people. Even though BMI was never designed to assess the health of individuals, even though the majority of health problems attributed to weight are actually caused by delayed access to healthcare and anti-fat bias, even though study after study has proven that NO DIET leads to long term weight loss and that constant weight fluctuations are WORSE for the body than simply being fat.

Of course, healthcare isn't the only setting in which fat people are discriminated against, and work needs to be done on multiple levels to improve the lives of fat people. But if I can convince even one of my colleagues to read this book and change their practice, I'll count it as a personal victory. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Sexual assault, and Fatphobia

madamegeneva's review against another edition

informative sad medium-paced

4.25

I want to give Aubrey a huge hug - this book was fantastic and extremely affirming for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s frustrating just how many freaking barriers fat people have to face on a daily basis, but this book opened my eyes to the true extent of the issues and laid out how we can work on fixing them right now. 

Additionally, the book isn’t just informative, it’s also well written and easy to read - but not the point of condescension. Fucking gold star.

[Bonus points cause she’s a fat queer badass woman]

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Sexual violence, and Misogyny

entiresunset's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

A must read for everyone. Cannot recommend this enough. I learned so much by reading this book and am now able to tackle my own internalised anti-fat bias and weight stigma and to start my own healing process.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia and Bullying

Moderate: Eating disorder, Sexual harassment, Medical trauma, and Transphobia

Minor: Sexual assault and Rape

chlo_po's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

essential reading for the body justice movement aka everyone with a body, and a powerful way forward against the ever present anti-fatness in ourselves and our society 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma

Moderate: Sexual assault, Eating disorder, and Sexual harassment

thehinkydonut's review against another edition

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

stevia333k's review

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 against another edition

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

marleefayek's review against another edition

informative reflective fast-paced

3.75

Informative read, and honest first hand accounts from the author. Along with data/research, and offers what the reader can do to recognize fatphobia and become an alley to fat people. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual assault