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.
