Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat

Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

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

39 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.

Content Warnings

maddramaqueen's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings

ellysiap's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Content Warnings

mads_jpg's review against another edition

Go to review page

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".

Content Warnings

tree_branch's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging informative medium-paced

4.0

Content Warnings

zoiejanelle's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional informative reflective fast-paced

4.5

with the context that i am a huge maintenance phase fan, i must rate this 4.5 stars instead of 5 simply because i felt that 80% of the book was a retelling of past maintenance phase episodes. i have learned so much from Aubrey Gordon and i am still so glad to have read this book. i really appreciate the personal anecdotes that served as the through line for the entire book, and i found a handful of chapters to be extremely informative and new.

good elements:
the sections on feminist theory, race, and government intervention were the redeeming qualities for me. i felt like i had really clear takeaways from these sections that i could reflect on and use to better myself/work on my internal struggles with anti-fatness and racism. the final chapter was extremely reflective and hopeful, though, despite the insurmountable and overwhelming evidence of anti-fatness in our culture that is explained throughout the book. i felt that this work was an actionable, interesting, affirming, and informative read overall.

not so good elements:
i believe she harped on the Body Positivity movement a LITTLE too much, but i understood why the angle was important. i also felt that her perspective skewed very left-leaning, which is not a bad thing in and of itself, but if this book was supposed to be accessible and introductory to all readers, it would definitely lose the more conservative (specifically anti-regulation) crowd simply from implicit bias. i wanted to dive a little deeper into why government intervention and regulation are important considerations and what that looks like EXACTLY, but i realize that those subjects may be better explored in another book.

i would still recommend this book to anyone just starting out in their fat liberation journey!

Content Warnings