What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat

Description

From the creator of Your Fat Friend and co-host of the Maintenance Phase
podcast, an explosive indictment of the systemic and cultural bias facing
plus-size people. Anti-fatness is everywhere. In What We Don’t Talk About When
We Talk About Fat, Aubrey Gordon unearths the cultural attitudes and social
systems that have led to people being denied basic needs because they are fat
and calls for social justice movements to be inclusive of plus-sized people’s
experiences. Unlike the recent wave of memoirs and quasi self-help books that
encourage readers to love and accept themselves, Gordon pushes the discussion
further towards authentic fat activism, which includes ending legal weight
discrimination, giving equal access to health care for large people, increased
access to public spaces, and ending anti-fat violence. As she argues, “I did
not come to body positivity for self-esteem. I came to it for social justice.”
By sharing her experiences as well as those of others—from smaller fat to very
fat people—she concludes that to be fat in our society is to be seen as an
undeniable failure, unlovable, unforgivable, and morally condemnable. Fatness
is an open invitation for others to express disgust, fear, and insidious
concern. To be fat is to be denied humanity and empathy. Studies show that fat
survivors of sexual assault are less likely to be believed and less likely
than their thin counterparts to report various crimes; 27% of very fat women
and 13% of very fat men attempt suicide; over 50% of doctors describe their
fat patients as “awkward, unattractive, ugly and noncompliant”; and in 48
states, it’s legal—even routine—to deny employment because of an applicant’s
size. Advancing fat justice and changing prejudicial structures and attitudes
will require work from all people. What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About
Fat is a crucial tool to create a tectonic shift in the way we see, talk
about, and treat our bodies, fat and thin alike. Read more

Features:

Product Details:

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Beacon Press (November 17, 2020)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0807041300
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 07
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.32 x 0.82 x 9.27 inches
• Best Sellers Rank: #341,465 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #323 in Self-Help for Eating Disorders & Body Image Issues (Books) #558 in Feminist Theory (Books) #979 in Cultural Anthropology (Books)
• #323 in Self-Help for Eating Disorders & Body Image Issues (Books)
• #558 in Feminist Theory (Books)