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Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'
The Art of Frugal Hedonism: A Guide to Spending Less While Enjoying Everything More by Adam Grubb, Annie Raser-Rowland
3 reviews
liesthemoontells's review
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
3.5
This was a thought-provoking, challenging, and at times problematic and frustrating book that I think everyone should read with a nubbin of salt.
I found sections of this book to be quite confronting in the way that they made me reflect on my lifestyle choices, which aspects help me to make healthy and positive decisions, and which parts of "convenience" living are perpetuating a self-fulfilling capitalist grindstyle.
The book contains many great tips, suggestions, and thought exercises to help the reader be mindful about their consumerism and take steps to adjust their habits. That being said, the book also contains a lot of blind spots and assumed privilege that at times negates the positive messaging.
My takeaway from this book is that the ultimate Frugal Hedonist should be an able bodied home owner with a stable enough income that you can make the decision to downsize it (also, you must love cooking). The idea that any Australian renter would be able to enter the property market without working five days a week is honestly pretty ludicrous, and imo negates a lot of the economic conditions that the authors of this book have based their lifestyle on.
At times I found the emphasis on getting fit and the anti-obesity messaging to border on fat shaming. There was also one quote that very much read as anti-vaxx lite i.e. the footnote that says "insufficient bacterial diversity may even cause anxiety and autism spectrum disorders" [CITATION NEEDED, DR FRUGAL]
Overall, this book is a bit of a mixed bag, but challenging and stimulating enough that I will be recommending it to several people who I think may get something valuable out of it.
I found sections of this book to be quite confronting in the way that they made me reflect on my lifestyle choices, which aspects help me to make healthy and positive decisions, and which parts of "convenience" living are perpetuating a self-fulfilling capitalist grindstyle.
The book contains many great tips, suggestions, and thought exercises to help the reader be mindful about their consumerism and take steps to adjust their habits. That being said, the book also contains a lot of blind spots and assumed privilege that at times negates the positive messaging.
My takeaway from this book is that the ultimate Frugal Hedonist should be an able bodied home owner with a stable enough income that you can make the decision to downsize it (also, you must love cooking). The idea that any Australian renter would be able to enter the property market without working five days a week is honestly pretty ludicrous, and imo negates a lot of the economic conditions that the authors of this book have based their lifestyle on.
At times I found the emphasis on getting fit and the anti-obesity messaging to border on fat shaming. There was also one quote that very much read as anti-vaxx lite i.e. the footnote that says "insufficient bacterial diversity may even cause anxiety and autism spectrum disorders" [CITATION NEEDED, DR FRUGAL]
Overall, this book is a bit of a mixed bag, but challenging and stimulating enough that I will be recommending it to several people who I think may get something valuable out of it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia, Alcohol, Ableism, and Addiction
Minor: Classism and Body shaming
knikchevich's review
funny
informative
medium-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Minor: Ableism and Fatphobia
elektrasoph's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
1.5
A few thought provoking points about resisting consumerism if you can get past the fatphobia and ableism. Also, most of the critiques they level at individuals and "society" are actually critiques of late capitalism, but I'm not sure the authors are familiar with the term since they spend most of the book criticizing it but never mention it, leaving the reader to ascribe it's ills to human folly or technology or something. I'll admit this was a hate read from the beginning but I can't help voicing criticism for a book that advocates individual action to address the problem of capitalism extracting inhuman amounts of labor hours from workers in industrialized societies, and the action they recommend is...just work less?
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism and Fatphobia
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