recommended fat reading

[keryx]

I'm choosing to believe that the sudden outbreak of fat hate on feminist communities lately is simply an overreaction to the [entirely reasonable] demand that we address fatphobia as a feminist issue. And that the fat hate is therefore good in a sort of cathartic way.

Yeah. Do not fuck with me today. That particular choice of belief is taking a lot of energy to sustain, and I am on drugs.

Anyhow, I'm seeing a lot of people recommending Fat! So? lately as a result. It's a good book, and one I think anyone who is personally struggling with the idea that they are "too fat" should read, like now. But if your fat reading only goes as far as that, it's like taking Cunt as your ur-text for feminism. There are other things you should read, too. [Ahem. I've linked to Amazon where I didn't have direct website links, but I encourage you to buy from the author, feminist bookstores, or at least union chains.]

Taking Up Space, Pattie Thomas's sociological memoir. Read if: you want the idea of personal fat empowerment placed in a cultural context, you've read Marilyn's book and are trying to figure out what to do now, or if you're not fat per se but want to understand. Pattie also writes Fatty Patties.

Avoirdupois, Tish Parmeley's I think as-yet-unpublished memoir (the link is, I think, simply an extract/essay, but wow - Tish's words have this tendency to smack people in the face in a good way). Read if: you need to know you're not alone. Tish also writes Fatshadow and is, in my opinion, the Best Blogger Evah.

The Obesity (or Diet) Myth [Did this book get retitled in paperback or something?], Paul Campos' scientific and legal analysis places fat in both a cultural and medical context. Read if: you need/want data. Also totally trumps Glen Gaesser's Big Fat Lies, although the latter is a good read if only to point out that even a doctor who runs a weightloss program can kinda recognize that fat isn't (all) evil.

I haven't read any of Susan Stinson's novels. But I'll say, if you can get your hands of some of her poetry, it tells a nice story of awakening in the body. Read if: you're asleep in yours.

Fat: the Anthropology of an Obsession is a collection of essays on the global cultural context of fat. I'm reading it right now - the intriguing thing about this book is that it's a much bigger perspective on fat, not just about the body or just about health or whatever. Read if: you want to recontextualize fat as an object, a state of being, a food.

Bodies Out of Bounds also a collection of essays, but from a more personal/political stance. Read if: you'd like a little consciousness-raising. I can also sorta recommend Revolting Bodies (written by Katie Lebesco, one of the eds of BOoB), which will resonate if you are a queer theorist or really like Judith Butler's or Susan Bordo's works.

Losing It is basically an indictment of the diet industry. It also contains a good amount of data in the Paul Camposy vein, which makes it good fodder for argument. Read if: you are about to go on, quit, or otherwise interact in some way with the diet industry. Know what you're doing.

Women En Large - this one's largely a collection of photos, and it seems to really help people move from thinking fat is hideous to thinking fat can be beautiful. Read if: you're having trouble seeing yourself as beautiful in the mirror. Laurie also writes Body Impolitic.

Zaftig is a diverse collection of erotic stories edited by Hanne Blank, who also wrote Big Big Love (an advice book on fat sex). Read both if: you're trying to see fat as sexy, or at least understand why other people might.

For neophytes and people trying to do something - Big Fat Blog is a great resource for current events and general education. Paul McAleer does a good job of making the site user-friendly, safe, and yet still open for new people to learn.

Feel free to add. I deliberately left off a large number of "I'll accept my fat while I secretly hate myself for being 'unhealthy'" Fat Girl Stories (generally written by people named Wendy) as well as some of the denser more academic stuff, but I'm sure I still missed some things people should be reading.

Comments

[belladonnalin.livejournal.com]

Can I link to this from my journal and feminist_rage?

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Yes, absolutely. It's public for just that purpose.

[belladonnalin.livejournal.com]

Rcokin'. I just like to check before I link from rage. It can make your journal a bit ... high-traffic.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I'm ready. *evil grin*

[fancymcsnazsnaz.livejournal.com]

*updates wish list*

Thank you so much for the recommendations. I'm determined to arm myself against my own internalized fatphobia and self-loathing, so this is really awesome.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. I just added another 4-5 things to the list as I re-read it, too.

It excites me to compare what's out there now to what we had even 3-4 years ago - there's enough fat-focused reading material available now that my list is long despite being really really picky.

[mermeydele.livejournal.com]

this is a really good list - i definitely recommend susan stinson's venus of chalk as well as her poetry and other novels. theres also a fat fiction anthology and fat nonfiction anthology - but some of the stories in both borderon or work into fat-hatred (i think the authors wanted "all perspectives" on fat).

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've read some of both of those anthologies, and decided they didn't pass muster for today's list, like the Wendy Books. Not that they're bad books, they're just not far enough from fatphobia for me to endorse them.

I've been meaning to read "Venus of Chalk" since it came out, and still haven't. Thanks for the recommendation.

[sheana.livejournal.com]

Probably makes me a total geek, but if you want to feel all nostalgic about being a fat queer kid (not that I know if you were or not, just sayin, if you want to feel nostalgic just the same), Susan Stinson's "Fat Girl Dances with Rocks" is also delicious.

[mellowtomysoul.livejournal.com]

yep, i've read both and really liked them. i love non-theory fat posi books! i will make a list one day, too.

and keryx i agree... Fat?so! is very very very "Cunt"y to me, too... only i don't HATE it (and i HATE, DESPRISE, PISS ON Cunt).

[mermeydele.livejournal.com]

hey - can i add you to my flist? (ps its stefanie from fata)

[steamedwords.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting these. This is an issue I'm trying to research more, while hopefully not coming off as too much of an ignorant jerk in the process.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I own copies of most of these, if there's something you want to read but can't find.

[cutegaychick.livejournal.com]

No! no! You should be an ignorant jerk on keryx's journal as often as possible! Chubbyninja and I need company!

[steamedwords.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't mean here. I just didn't want to join the ranks of teh dummies over in feminist.

I'll happily be a huge asshole over here whenever it's needed!

[hope-persists.livejournal.com]

Body Outlaws, no doubt. quoted on my info page.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

That's the book that was 'Adios, Barbie", right? If so, it's a good one. I don't think of it as a fat book so much as a feminist book, though. Which just proves the lines are blurry.

[hope-persists.livejournal.com]

i think it just really spoke to me in all the ways i am "othered" and one of those are as a fat girl.

[hope-persists.livejournal.com]

another person NOT to include on this list (because of internalized fatphobia), anything written by Jennifer Weiner. ick.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed her first book, actually. There is definitely some fatphobia going on, but in a way that felt... a little more aware, I guess. But yes, I do not consider her work really part of the fat-pos cannon.

[hope-persists.livejournal.com]

Good in Bed? I hated it. everyone i knew kept telling me how much i would like it because it was SO FAT POSITIVE and then i read it and was like, "i dont get it, it's about a fat girl that hates herself for 9/10 of the book. why should i like this?"

[keryx.livejournal.com]

It was the last 10th that did it for me. I think at the point I read that book, it described a lot of my own feelings about my body, which were mostly the hate. So it was kinda "hey, there's a path out of this, and if a chicklit heroine can do it..."

[tupelo.livejournal.com]

Have you read Wendy Shanker's

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Have you read Wendy Shanker's <a href=The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life>Fat Girl's Guide to Life</a>? I'd love to hear your take on it. Disclosure up front: I really did not like it.

Aha never mind. I see your end note. ;) I'd been looking for the title.

[tupelo.livejournal.com]

Boy, did I ever fuck up that tag. Apparently I cut and pasted the title, not the URL. Shows what happens to your brain after your first dance class in five-odd years.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

To summarize my opinion of FGGTL: Hate. Hate. Hate.

I've commented extensively on Wendy Shanker and why I love to hate her throughout my brilliant blogging career, but that's a good synopsis. You're not fat positive if you think things like "fat women have an especially big responsibility to eat and exercise right" and that you should "wear clothes to camouflage flaws". ACKACKACK.

[tupelo.livejournal.com]

In a nutshell, I felt like Wendy had issues. Her book has a flitty fun title and cover, but it's rife with self-loathing and bitterness at the world. Decide if you want to be fat positive or self-flagellating and get back to us, ya know? The fact that she went to that inpatient thing after insisting for the first 3/4 of the book that she was FINE WITH HER WEIGHT THANKS was just like "huh?"

Not only that, but her venom for Weight Watchers seemed to possibly have some underlying backstory that we weren't privy to. I am biased because I do WW, yeah, but there are a LOT more evil weight loss entities out there. The WW plan is nothing but balanced eating, and they encourage you to aim for healthy, not "thin." Wendy acted like they broke down her door and made her eat carrot sticks against her will.

That book needed a good editor is what it needed -- for starters.

I need to find your old entries.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Hee. I have my own venom for Weight Watchers. But it's mostly that dammit, it seems to be the only thing on earth that will teach people to eat, and it's all caught up in pounds and diet industry crud. Aiee.

Stuff I wrote about fat, 2001-2006ish. I've been writing on my LJ for much of that time, too, but originally longer stuff went on that blog.

[tupelo.livejournal.com]

Cool! bookmarking to read it all!

[emmalyon.livejournal.com]

Great links! (I just wandered over from garrity's LJ, BTW).
I was just completely sucked in by Fatshadow, that's some excellent stuff....

[mr-flabulous.livejournal.com]

i have most of these books (although i haven't read them all yet). fat!so? is totally the 'cunt' of fat acceptance books, which is a good and not-so-good thing. as a nerd i found the facts (and the analysis) of the obesity myth to be more validating and helpful.

also he (paul campos) had some race & class analysis, which is horribly lacking in the field (which is usually about how oppressed otherwise privileged fat white women are)

i also have (but haven't yet read) 'shadows on a tightrope' which is this anthology of fat women's writing from 1980-something.

[mr-flabulous.livejournal.com]

ooh, also there's camryn manheim's 'wake up i'm fat', which i have but read so long ago that i can't remember if it's good or not...

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Camryn's book I recall being okay, although also filled with fat hate at times (ultimately a happily ever after thing) and very focused on her career.

I'd be interested in hearing thoughts on 'Shadows on a Tightrope' when you get into it.

[firecat]

Shadows on a Tightrope is a must-read for its historical value.

I assume you deliberately left off Susan Bordo's Unbearable Weight because it's heavy on the academese. I think it's great though.

I didn't get very far into Fat: the Anthropology of an Obsession because I got offended at the essay early on about FAism. I don't remember details though.

Awesome list.

[peggynature.livejournal.com]

One book I really liked was "Women Afraid to Eat," which is a title that makes me cringe (not sure why), but which is FULL of interesting facts about fat and health, and critical analysis of research...but also highly readable. I would especially suggest it for anyone who's been affected by disordered/dysfunctional eating.

Another awesome, AWESOME book is "Never Too Thin" by Roberta Pollack Seid. So full of information about women's relationships to their bodies (and, inevitably, the weight obsession.) Cannot recommend it highly enough. I found it in the library...I'd love to own it.

Re: Awesome list.

[peggynature.livejournal.com]

btw, I think both of these books might especially resonate with a feminist audience.

[kaygigi.livejournal.com]

When I saw a link to your post, I was a little nervous it would be the pure fat-positive popular-style stuff that abounds, but as a college prof looking to put together a course on eating, diet, and health (especially to counteract the bullshit course taught in the fitness and nutrition studies program at my college), you've provided a really really good reading list that any academic would love. THANK YOU. While some of it is what I'm specifically not looking for, I was hoping to get beyond just Campos into the theoretical constructions of body size, not just the political economy of diet. Even the anthropology anthology listed above is helpful; it's one thing to say "well in Africa fat is beautiful" and another to provide mulitple cross cultural readings of body size.
Again, THANK YOU. If you do have more of the denser academic stuff, can you either comment back with some listings or we'll figure out how to email?

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I didn't respond to this originally, but look for Susan Bordo's stuff. Also, Katie LeBesco's books (listed in the post) will probably be more of use to you, as might one or two of the essays in the collections others mentioned in comments.

[astragali.livejournal.com]

I came here from a post on fatshionista, and I wonder: Have you read "I'm Not The New Me", by Wendy McClure? I thought that while it wasn't all about fat acceptance, her experience with her dieting mother especially rang very true to me.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

She's on my "Wendy's to not read" list - just from a fat acceptance standpoint, that is (unlike say Wendy Shanker) - the book is well-written, but it's a memoir, not a fat resource in my opinion.