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jcstokes95 's review for:
Unshrinking
by Kate Manne
informative
reflective
medium-paced
[Book Riot Read Harder 2025 Challenge - Prompt 12 - Read a staff pick from an indie bookstore]
I am honestly thrilled to see a book on this subject get enough traction to be nominated for the National Book Award. In my opinion, fatphobia feels like the last socially acceptable tool of discrimination, still popular even among leftist circles. Kate Manne’s well-researched piece looks at is from all angles, including, notably, as a proxy for all other tools of oppression many try not to be publicly accused of, namely racism, classism and ableism. I look at the prevalence of fatphobia as proof as the necessity for intersectionality; it cannot be pull out until we face its roots. I appreciate that Manne’s approach is similar.
I am honestly thrilled to see a book on this subject get enough traction to be nominated for the National Book Award. In my opinion, fatphobia feels like the last socially acceptable tool of discrimination, still popular even among leftist circles. Kate Manne’s well-researched piece looks at is from all angles, including, notably, as a proxy for all other tools of oppression many try not to be publicly accused of, namely racism, classism and ableism. I look at the prevalence of fatphobia as proof as the necessity for intersectionality; it cannot be pull out until we face its roots. I appreciate that Manne’s approach is similar.
This book cites so many trailblazers in the fat liberation space, Aubrey Gordon, Viginia Sole Smith, and Sabrina Strings. I think, particularly the first half of this book brings together so much of their writing with historical research and personal snippets of memoir in a way that is quite effective. I think this is the most accessible text I’ve read about the subject and most nuanced. It’s surprising….actually, not surprising, disheartening, to read reviews that accuse Manne of bias in her selection of evidence, when these studies have been widely discussed and some she presents have been endorsed by the CDC and other health authorities. I think these reactions come from a panic and moralizing of the fat body which people have a hard time releasing. Furthermore, so many of these responses seem to germinate from some level of ableism. Having read so many books on this subject, I would actually go as far to say that Manne shows the most virtues of her opposition. It feels exceedingly balanced to me, as she discusses diminishing returns in Flegal’s study and presents it’s opposition.
The second half of the book felt full of newer conversations to me, mainly because it is a philosophical angle on a topic I care about. Reading anything “philosophical” makes me think that all the thinking I do is by accident. It’s not my field. That said, it is interesting to see all the specific examples of fatphobia in any field. I was also interested in the discussion around whether we owe one another health, I feel I would go even farther than the author that we owe each other very little since our bodies are our own. But, I will say, there is something in some of this argument that felt like it could have been sharper, particularly because I think what she is trying to say is so important, maybe even the crux of the book. That it’s not just “mean” to judge fat people and pressure them into dieting, but that it is unethical because there is really no choice, and even if there was choice, it would be beyond individuals to police. This is something I think about often around weight bias and ableism, we tend to more easily accept what is a societal aberration when it can be cast as without choice…even if we should accept it regardless of this fact. It calls to mind the discourse around gay marriage in the early 2000s and trans folks now. People deserve respect and inclusion regardless of whether they are “born this way” or not. Whether you understand them or disagree with them. People deserve respect because they are humans. And that is what I think is at the center of this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia