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A review by anneklein
Dead Weight: On Hunger, Harm and Disordered Eating by Emmeline Clein
dark
hopeful
informative
sad
tense
5.0
This book was incredible. I often enjoy nonfiction books, especially when they deal with difficult or philosophical or sociopolitical topics, but these reading experiences rarely leave me feeling emotional. This book, however, made me understand the meaning of the word "visceral" in a completely newfound way.
Despite never having experienced an eating disorder (or at least not one that could be diagnosed separately from my depression; I did stop eating during that time, but it was directly related to my apathy for life and to my suicidal thoughts. Being thin was never the main goal but merely another potential avenue to death), I felt a sense of physical unease and a tremor in my limbs during a good few parts of this book. And even having said that, I think I would want to push the book into the hands of everyone who currently lives in this fatphobic capitalist society that profits from encouraging eating disorders and from making us think that being fat is a problem that we must get rid of, a problem to ideally pay them our way out of.
The sheer statistics in this book are enough to change anyone's worldview, not to speak of Clein's sharp analysis of said statistics, the way she connects ideas and draws conclusions, her readings of the cultural products of this society (which include many anorexia memoirs) and the historical precedents that led to our current paradigm, and her kind-hearted criticism of pro-ED online communities. There are so many passages that I would love to plaster on every billboard in London and yell from the rooftops for everybody to hear.
And I loved, loved, loved that the whole time Clein wrote from a place of love, of knowing that she'd been through the same shit as all the women before her, and avoiding a sanctimonious, pathologising, or victim-blaming tone, because as she points out, you can't create a fatphobic society and then blame girls for following its decrees faithfully. A groundbreaking work.
Despite never having experienced an eating disorder (or at least not one that could be diagnosed separately from my depression; I did stop eating during that time, but it was directly related to my apathy for life and to my suicidal thoughts. Being thin was never the main goal but merely another potential avenue to death), I felt a sense of physical unease and a tremor in my limbs during a good few parts of this book. And even having said that, I think I would want to push the book into the hands of everyone who currently lives in this fatphobic capitalist society that profits from encouraging eating disorders and from making us think that being fat is a problem that we must get rid of, a problem to ideally pay them our way out of.
The sheer statistics in this book are enough to change anyone's worldview, not to speak of Clein's sharp analysis of said statistics, the way she connects ideas and draws conclusions, her readings of the cultural products of this society (which include many anorexia memoirs) and the historical precedents that led to our current paradigm, and her kind-hearted criticism of pro-ED online communities. There are so many passages that I would love to plaster on every billboard in London and yell from the rooftops for everybody to hear.
And I loved, loved, loved that the whole time Clein wrote from a place of love, of knowing that she'd been through the same shit as all the women before her, and avoiding a sanctimonious, pathologising, or victim-blaming tone, because as she points out, you can't create a fatphobic society and then blame girls for following its decrees faithfully. A groundbreaking work.