3.0

I’ve been eagerly waiting on this book since Gordon began talking about it in her channels. I was especially eager in light of other conversations about activism and allyship and there are some parallels between the conversations that have been going on throughout the last several years. I wanted to love it. I liked it, but didn’t end up loving it.

I should say first that while I’m objectively overweight, I’m probably too small to fit within the world of fat Gordon sees, and that might result in a different perspective than other readers.

I really appreciated how she lay out the difference between body positivity, fat activism and fat justice. The nuances there were important and complicated and I loved that the last section of the book was notes and other further reading, as I think of this book as a stepping off point.

Overall, the content and topics were amazing and I enjoyed how she lawyered in research, personal experience and anecdotes, but I feel like there was unnecessary repetition: we heard about fenphen being the only thing that worked for a family member multiple times, as well as Eddie Murphy’s characters. I get that they fit multiple themes, but I feel like the content could have been better laid out to avoid the repetition and provide more content.