From the creator of Your Fat Friend, an explosive indictment on the systemic and cultural issues facing plus-sized people that will move us toward creating an agenda for fat justice.
Part memoir, part social critique, What We Don't Talk about When We Talk about Fat calls for civil rights movements and identity politics to be inclusive of plus-sized people's experiences. As the author 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 other fat people, she illuminates that to be fat in our society is to be seen as an undeniable failure, unlovable, unforgivable, and morally condemnable. It is to be denied doctors' services, to be mocked on airplanes, to be the punch line of jokes, to be a regulated health risk, to be "fatcalled," to be made more visible and invisible at the same time. To be fat is to be denied humanity.
What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat is a primer on the cultural attitudes and social systems that led to people being denied basic needs because they are fat. Studies show that roughly 85% of managers say they wouldn't consider hiring a fat woman; 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 49 states, it's legal--even routine--to deny employment because of their size. Readers will come away with a better understanding that fat activism isn't about self-discovery or feeling good in your own skin, it's about not being denied civil rights.
About the Author
The author writes under the pseudonym of "Your Fat Friend" illuminating the experiences of fat people and urging greater compassion for readers of all sizes. Her work has reached over 4 million readers and has been translated into 19 languages. She lives in the Northwest, where she works as a community organizer.
Industry Reviews
"Everyone who has a fat family member, friend, acquaintance, or coworker should read this insightful book."
Library Journal, Starred Review
"Few writers approach the realities of living in a fat body, the pernicious nature of fatphobia, and what it would take for our culture to radically reimagine our relationships to our bodies than Aubrey Gordon. . . . Gordon has crafted a manifesto on unapologetic fatness and fat justice. Her cultural criticism about bodies is timely, elegant, searing. This book is required reading for absolutely everyone. The wisdom Gordon offers in these pages is going to irrevocably change fat discourse, and it comes not a moment too soon."
Roxane Gay author of Bad Feminist and Hunger
"A deeply articulate, validating, and empowering read! Aubrey Gordon pushes the envelope beyond feel-good-Instagram-body-positivity and calls for structural change in our thinking, understanding, and treatment of fat bodies. Your fat friends need this book, but your thin friends need it even more."
Julie Murphy author of Dumplin'
"It's not often you find a book that's going to save someone's life. As a fat person, I felt heard and seen. . . . It's like having a fat best friend on your bookshelf, ready to explain everything that you didn't think you needed to know about fatness."
Sofie Hagen author of Happy Fat: Taking Up Space in a World That Wants to Shrink You
"An authoritative, forceful, splendidly written, and deeply moving account of the shockingly personal hostility she and other fat people must endure on a daily basis. You don't have to agree with her interpretation of the research on fatness and its consequences to sign on to her thoroughly convincing demand for respect as a human being and for what she calls 'fat justice.' This book changed my thinking, and in the best possible way."
Marion Nestle professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health, emerita, New York University, and author of Let's Ask Marion
"We can't universalize experience, and the default thin-centrism of the body positivity movement has failed all of us. Gordon's spellbinding storytelling and vulnerability are compelling and transformative, buoyed by insightful critical analysis. . . . This book is a wake-up call to humanity and has the power to transform how we approach healthcare."
Lindo Bacon PhD, scientist and author of Health at Every Size and Radical Belonging
