Reviews with content warning for Body shaming - What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat

As others have said, this should be required reading for anyone with a body.

It’s achingly hard to get through but also wonderfully validating who experiences anti-fatness. It is a powerful indictment of our medical and diet industries and a call for truly re-examining and dismantling the harmful and deadly bias of anti-fatness.

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jeremy_bearimy's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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karcitis's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

4.75

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bayleereads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

This was such a good read/listen. I encourage everyone— of all sizes— to read this one. Aubrey Gordon talks about diet culture, fatphobia, eating disorders, weight loss, sexual violence, and SO much more as it pertains to being a fat person. As a fat individual, this one really resonated with me and I would like to go back and read a physical copy to annotate for my own shelves. I removed a half star because I wish there would have been more talk and emphasis on eating disorders in fat people, and how they are often overlooked and dismissed because they look different. Although this is touched on, I would have liked more.

→ Things I Liked: narrator, informative

→ Things I Disliked: anecdotal— it could have had more “take action” conversation

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bcastaneda's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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jcstokes95's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

A book like this does not exist yet, and I think in 50 years, when we have finally begun to truly confront the reality of anti-fat bias, this will be the classic we look to. When I heard the anonymous, radical writer of Your Fat Friend on Medium had revealed her identity and published a book, I pre-ordered it immediately. I salivated waiting for it to arrive, and when I got it, I kept it on my shelf for two years. Because I realized it would be one of the most triggering reading experiences of my life (correct). This book though, it’s so necessary and so radical, I just want to tell everyone to read it. But I’m nervous to even review it for all the reasons it says I will be.

Gordon’s experiences throughout this book constantly reflected my own life experiences. This was nauseating because it meant remember all the screaming out of cars at me, all my anxious feelings toward dating, experiences that led me there, all the coworker questions about food, every garbage medical experience and denial of care. I had to think about all the ways I have learned to protect myself because Gordon’s own stories were reflecting that back to me. Then I thought, there is no way any thin person it going to ever get any understanding of these stories, because fat people are too afraid to tell them. We are disbelieved on any claim we make. Gordon gets to the heart of this issue as well.

Honestly, she’s slamming fact after fact down about how the abuse, intolerance and injustice serves to worsen fat people’s health outcomes. She’s telling you what any person on the tough side of the fucked BMI scale will tell you. There is very little about your body’s composition that you can control. If we could control it, wouldn’t we change it to avoid the harassment? Or do we really believe that over 30 percent of Americans are really into being negged by strangers?

The message here is inherent dignity. Every person, no matter their health, weight, attractiveness, ability level has inherent dignity. This is what we all need to hear. Gordon’s digging into what I have always found most fascinating about discriminators toward any group. The way the illusion of choice emboldens people to believe they have a say in other’s life and rights. (Choice was the core argument against gay marriage and continues to be the main argument against trans rights). It has always been bullshit.

I could pretty much talk about all my thoughts on this book for days. But I won’t. Because honestly, one of aforementioned self-protection practices I’ve learned is not sharing my every thought on fatness on the internet. So, where I will end it, every person should try to read this book. It is going to make you uncomfortable; you will be squirming in your chair the whole time. But maybe you will be able to begin confronting the ways you make life difficult for others without even knowing it.

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corvidaeus's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative medium-paced

4.5

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