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Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'
Happy Fat: Taking Up Space in a World That Wants to Shrink You by Sofie Hagen
2 reviews
junglejelly's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
A great book about fat liberation. While it delves into very deep and dark topics, Sofie's comedic tangents and footnotes help to lighten the load.
This is by no means a thorough delve into fat liberation (it isn't meant to be) but it's such a good start.
On a personal note, some topics really hit home but overall really helped me explore the relationship with my body.
I would recommend this to everyone and anyone, no matter your size!
This is by no means a thorough delve into fat liberation (it isn't meant to be) but it's such a good start.
On a personal note, some topics really hit home but overall really helped me explore the relationship with my body.
I would recommend this to everyone and anyone, no matter your size!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, and Fatphobia
Moderate: Eating disorder and Emotional abuse
Minor: Mental illness, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Toxic friendship
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.
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.
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
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