Skip to Main Content (Press Enter)
What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon
Add What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat to bookshelf
Add to Bookshelf

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

By Aubrey Gordon

By Aubrey Gordon

By Aubrey Gordon

By Aubrey Gordon

By Aubrey Gordon

By Aubrey Gordon

Best Seller
Paperback $15.95

Nov 16, 2021 | ISBN 9780807014776

Hardcover $25.95

Nov 17, 2020 | ISBN 9780807041307

Ebook $11.99

Nov 17, 2020 | ISBN 9780807041321

All Formats
+
    What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon
    Paperback $15.95
    Nov 16, 2021 | ISBN 9780807014776

    Buy from Other Retailers:

    See All Formats (2) +
    • $15.95

      Nov 16, 2021 | ISBN 9780807014776

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • $25.95

      Nov 17, 2020 | ISBN 9780807041307

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • Nov 17, 2020 | ISBN 9780807041321

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Buy the Ebook:

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

    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.

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

    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.

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

    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.

    Also by Aubrey Gordon

    "You Just Need to Lose Weight"
    See all books by Aubrey Gordon

    Also by Aubrey Gordon

    "You Just Need to Lose Weight"
    See all books by Aubrey Gordon

    Also by Aubrey Gordon

    "You Just Need to Lose Weight"
    See all books by Aubrey Gordon

    Product Details

    Category: Biography & Memoir

    Paperback | $15.95
    Published by Beacon Press
    Nov 16, 2021 | 208 Pages | 6 x 9 | ISBN 9780807014776

    Category: Biography & Memoir

    Hardcover | $25.95
    Published by Beacon Press
    Nov 17, 2020 | 208 Pages | 6 x 9 | ISBN 9780807041307

    Category: Biography & Memoir

    Ebook | $11.99
    Published by Beacon Press
    Nov 17, 2020 | 208 Pages | ISBN 9780807041321

    YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

    Praise

    “Everyone who has a fat family member, friend, acquaintance, or coworker should read this insightful book.”
    —Library Journal, Starred Review

    “Gordon provides candid storytelling and critical analysis in this validating and inclusive read.”
    —Ms. Magazine

    “Writing from a personal and cultural perspective, Gordon goes beyond cosmetic complaints to undress the depths of anti-fat bias and discrimination, ultimately rallying for a social justice movement to form and broaden the scope of the conversation.”
    —CultureShift

    “Gordon seamlessly threads a personal narrative with data and history . . . A much-needed and accessible addition to fat discourse.”
    —Ayu Sutriasa, YES! Magazine

    ldquo;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

    “She’s one of the great writers of our generation, one of the great thinkers of our generation . . . I think I’ll never really be the same afterwards and I feel fresher and smarter and happier for sitting down with her.”
    —Jameela Jamil, iWeigh Podcast

    Table Of Contents

    Introduction

    CHAPTER 1
    Into Thin Air

    CHAPTER 2
    Becoming an Epidemic

    CHAPTER 3
    What Thinness Takes

    CHAPTER 4
    On Concern and Choice

    CHAPTER 5
    The Desirability Myth

    CHAPTER 6
    Such a Pretty Face

    CHAPTER 7
    First, Do No Harm

    CHAPTER 8
    The World to Come

    Acknowledgments
    Notes
    Index

    Looking for More Great Reads?
    21 Books You’ve Been Meaning to Read
    Back to Top

    Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

    Raise kids who love to read

    Raise kids who love to read

    Today's Top Books

    Want to know what people are actually reading right now?

     An online magazine for today’s home cook

    An online magazine for today’s home cook