Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Happy Fat: Taking Up Space in a World That Wants to Shrink You by Sofie Hagen

7 reviews

amylangdown_'s review

challenging emotional funny informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

5.0

This is a book I needed when I read it. Happy Fat is a book that reflects on the realities of being fat in a fatphobic world. There are interviews from amazing fat activists and personal stories from Sofie that ring true to all fatties alike. I’d recommend everyone fat to read it - and I’d especially recommend non-fat people who want to be good allies to fat people read it too. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming and Fatphobia

Moderate: Ableism, Eating disorder, and Self harm

bashsbooks's review against another edition

funny informative inspiring slow-paced

4.0

Happy Fat is a great introduction to fatphobia as a concept, and how to fight against it individually and systemically. It assumes that the reader has little to no interaction with or understanding of other kinds of social struggles, so it's good for folks that are newer to all sorts of movements and the idea of intersectionality altogether. It helped me evaluate my relationship to my body, and more importantly, it opened my eyes to struggles that fat people faced that I'd never considered before - like being unable to wipe in a small bathroom stall or being injured by too-small airplane seats. Also, Hagen is a comedian, and this book is injected with her great sense of humor. 

That said, I do have a few small gripes with this book. It's full of words that describe complex and nuanced things, but it doesn't have much room for many explanations (although Hagen does her best to provide definitions for many of them). This creates kind of a confusing buzzword effect, especially if you're not familiar with a lot of this language (thankfully, I knew most of these words beforehand). Jumping off of this, Hagen makes a lot of references to those with experiences she doesn't personally have - for example, being a person of color or being transgender. I appreciate the interviews with fat people who have these characteristics, but as a transgender person myself, there are moments where it feels like her understanding of gender has not fully surpassed that of the average liberal white woman. That is disappointing. (She has a joke where she uses the word "non-men" and talks about putting all the men in jail so the "non-men" can have fun. I'm not a fan of this new binary.) 

Overall, this is a very educational book, and I am glad I read it. It was good start for educating me about fat liberation, and I can't wait to get into some of the other media Hagen recommends. I'm also going to check out some of her comedy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Medical trauma, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Toxic friendship

-Diet culture

alys055's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

If I could make everyone read one book, it would be this one. If your considering it, ot's definitely worth the read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Rape and Sexual harassment

common_nonsense's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Eating disorder and Mental illness

jenniferpalmblad's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Sexism, and Suicidal thoughts

the_vegan_bookworm's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book is key reading for everyone. It is a fun, educational primer on fat liberation and challenging fatphobia in your own life. As noted in other reviews, it's not ground-breaking in terms of the fat liberation topics that are covered, but I think it would make a perfect entry point into understanding fatphobia.

Sofie is funny, witty and clever throughout. She is also vulnerable, emotional and deeply moving. The world is better for having this book in it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Ableism, Eating disorder, and Mental illness

Minor: Sexism

cerilouisereads's review

challenging funny inspiring medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Ableism, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Gaslighting