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A review by zlibrarian
Landwhale: On Turning Insults Into Nicknames, Why Body Image Is Hard, and How Diets Can Kiss My Ass by Jes Baker
4.0
Blogger Jes Baker may be familiar to readers and social media users that are already clued in to the body positivity movement. Over the years, Baker’s blog The Militant Baker: Lose the B-------, Liberate Your Body has featured vibrant, joyful photos of herself in bikinis, fitted dresses, shorts, and other clothes that the manners-free like to tell fat people not to wear.
Baker’s Mormon childhood and family life are complicated; while she has a loving, supportive relationship with her mother, the father she loves just as dearly projects his own conflicted feelings about weight when he repeatedly warns or scolds his daughter about being “lazy”. Fat=lazy in mainstream American culture, no matter how many jobs a working-or-middle-class person may be holding down. With those seeds of self-doubt sown early, Baker experiences depression and strained personal relationships, not to mention verbal abuse from complete, shouting strangers.
But the creative, empathetic love for life at the heart of Jes wins out. Baker’s evolving relationship, friendships, family communication, and nascent activism begin to bear fruit. Her blog readership grows, and eventually she’s sought after as a public speaker. The audience love isn’t universal, of course: she experiences vicious online harassment and public insults during the question-and-answer portions of her speaking engagements; she develops her own coping strategies. Baker blocks, talks back, and leaves the hateful, nameless commenters to their own echo chambers. Perhaps the trolls will someday understand that some poisons corrode the vessels they are stored in.
Approximately three-quarters into the book, Baker briefly refers to some writing/publishing advice she was given -- bloggers writing book manuscripts should avoid including previously published blog content. Wise advice, especially for aspiring authors who may themselves be polishing their writing craft in various online publication formats. However, its placement so late in the book felt a bit jarring, and may make the book feel somewhat dated years from now. It seems better suited to the introduction. Other aspects of the pacing and content are similarly awkward; although one understands that Baker believes in ethnic diversity and inclusion, women of color in the body positivity movement are mentioned late in the book. It would be interesting to read about how Baker’s Mormon childhood and young adulthood may have resulted in limited exposure to difference.
As a librarian, I’d recommend this to social sciences faculty, individual readers seeking engaging quick reads, and people unfamiliar with body positivity (both pro and con).
Baker’s Mormon childhood and family life are complicated; while she has a loving, supportive relationship with her mother, the father she loves just as dearly projects his own conflicted feelings about weight when he repeatedly warns or scolds his daughter about being “lazy”. Fat=lazy in mainstream American culture, no matter how many jobs a working-or-middle-class person may be holding down. With those seeds of self-doubt sown early, Baker experiences depression and strained personal relationships, not to mention verbal abuse from complete, shouting strangers.
But the creative, empathetic love for life at the heart of Jes wins out. Baker’s evolving relationship, friendships, family communication, and nascent activism begin to bear fruit. Her blog readership grows, and eventually she’s sought after as a public speaker. The audience love isn’t universal, of course: she experiences vicious online harassment and public insults during the question-and-answer portions of her speaking engagements; she develops her own coping strategies. Baker blocks, talks back, and leaves the hateful, nameless commenters to their own echo chambers. Perhaps the trolls will someday understand that some poisons corrode the vessels they are stored in.
Approximately three-quarters into the book, Baker briefly refers to some writing/publishing advice she was given -- bloggers writing book manuscripts should avoid including previously published blog content. Wise advice, especially for aspiring authors who may themselves be polishing their writing craft in various online publication formats. However, its placement so late in the book felt a bit jarring, and may make the book feel somewhat dated years from now. It seems better suited to the introduction. Other aspects of the pacing and content are similarly awkward; although one understands that Baker believes in ethnic diversity and inclusion, women of color in the body positivity movement are mentioned late in the book. It would be interesting to read about how Baker’s Mormon childhood and young adulthood may have resulted in limited exposure to difference.
As a librarian, I’d recommend this to social sciences faculty, individual readers seeking engaging quick reads, and people unfamiliar with body positivity (both pro and con).