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ethansreadingcorner 's review for:
What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat
by Aubrey Gordon
Okay. Now that it's not super late and I'm not super tired, here is my review.
Before I say anything else, green flag number 1: this is a book about anti-fatness *that is written by a fat person*, so someone who has actually experienced anti-fatness in their life.
In my opinion, this is a really important read - which is what many other reviewers have said, from what I've seen. This book explores anti-fat bias, concern trolling, healthism, ableism, fatcalling, weight loss, blatant anti-fat actions, and more. Also, the author (she/her) explores some of the intersectionality of anti-fatness, which is great. This novel is a mix between memoir and essay: at the beginning of each chapter, and here and there throughout, Aubrey Gordon presents a situation she has personally faced. Following this, Gordon presents statistics, studies, evidence in general, as well as the lived experiences of other fat people. In general, the writing, in my opinion, allowed for each message to be very easy to grasp.
The book is split into eight chapters:
1. Into Thin Air
2. Becoming an Epidemic
3. What Thinness Takes
4. On Concern and Choice
5. The Desirability Myth
6. Such a Pretty Face
7. First, Do No Harm (as someone who is considering going into medicine, this one was my personal favourite to read)
8. The World to Come
A few trigger warnings are definitely in order, such as descriptions of verbal and physical harassment, some “almond mom” behaviour, obviously descriptions of anti-fatness, and more. (Honestly, I can’t remember all of them.)
The only comment I have to make is that, in certain chapters, the author sometimes strayed from the topic at hand. Sometimes, this made it hard to remember what the overall message of that chapter was. This doesn’t affect the overall message of the novel as a whole, of course, but I wasn’t particularly fond of it. (It just made some of the concepts blend together, rather than being distinguishable in which concepts were explored in which chapters, which is what I usually prefer.)
All in all, I would recommend reading this.
Before I say anything else, green flag number 1: this is a book about anti-fatness *that is written by a fat person*, so someone who has actually experienced anti-fatness in their life.
In my opinion, this is a really important read - which is what many other reviewers have said, from what I've seen. This book explores anti-fat bias, concern trolling, healthism, ableism, fatcalling, weight loss, blatant anti-fat actions, and more. Also, the author (she/her) explores some of the intersectionality of anti-fatness, which is great. This novel is a mix between memoir and essay: at the beginning of each chapter, and here and there throughout, Aubrey Gordon presents a situation she has personally faced. Following this, Gordon presents statistics, studies, evidence in general, as well as the lived experiences of other fat people. In general, the writing, in my opinion, allowed for each message to be very easy to grasp.
The book is split into eight chapters:
1. Into Thin Air
2. Becoming an Epidemic
3. What Thinness Takes
4. On Concern and Choice
5. The Desirability Myth
6. Such a Pretty Face
7. First, Do No Harm (as someone who is considering going into medicine, this one was my personal favourite to read)
8. The World to Come
A few trigger warnings are definitely in order, such as descriptions of verbal and physical harassment, some “almond mom” behaviour, obviously descriptions of anti-fatness, and more. (Honestly, I can’t remember all of them.)
The only comment I have to make is that, in certain chapters, the author sometimes strayed from the topic at hand. Sometimes, this made it hard to remember what the overall message of that chapter was. This doesn’t affect the overall message of the novel as a whole, of course, but I wasn’t particularly fond of it. (It just made some of the concepts blend together, rather than being distinguishable in which concepts were explored in which chapters, which is what I usually prefer.)
All in all, I would recommend reading this.