A review by jg12389
Let's Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and Reshaped the World by Danielle Friedman

medium-paced

2.5

I learned a few things that were new to me, but was disturbed by how white and western focused this book is. It is very centered around white western women and pretty blindly praises fitness influencers without diving deep into their full lives and negative impact. The book mentions the Presidential Fitness Test but doesn't mention that it's garbage and how harmful it has been. The mention of bikram yoga included a pathetic almost-as-an-afterthought mention of, "oh by the way, the original creator was charged with sexual assault" which was honestly disgusting. And the yoga chapter in general featured maybe one person from India (where it was created) and mostly centered on white practitioners. I liked the parts where it did go into more intersectional and expansive topics but they were felt like they were tossed in as an afterthought. I was hoping for a lot more than basic white feminisn out of this book.