A review by dsuttles
Landwhale: On Turning Insults Into Nicknames, Why Body Image Is Hard, and How Diets Can Kiss My Ass by Jes Baker

4.0

I'm torn between 3 and 4 stars. I would give it 4 for the message, 3 for the writing (Baker's style is a tad informal for me). I'm going to go with 4 because Baker and I have so much in common as white women growing up in religious households with problematic fathers. I was most impacted by her essays on 1) visiting the Wizarding World of HP at Universal Studios - because I had pretty much the exact same experience*, 2) dealing with facial hair when you're femme (I thought I was the only one), and 3) finding the grey as a community when a person in our circle or someone we look up to decides to get WLS. She's careful to explain that she doesn't have all the answers (which I appreciate), but her writing is still thoughtful and insightful. I would say it's definitely worth the read, even for folks well-versed in radical body liberation and fat acceptance.

I haven't seen much recent work from Jes Baker. It seems like her social media and blog have been quiet for some time. I hope she is thriving and doing well. Her light is bright and she deserves to shine.

*I'm sure there is no love lost between Baker and HP now that Rowling has revealed herself as a complete and abominable transphobe. Of course, her work vilified fat characters too.