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A review by katharina90
Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
A history of fatphobia that above all else highlights the patriarchal origins of fatphobia and how it was always white men (from artists to doctors) who determined what a "good" body, and especially a good female body, ought to look like. Over the course of several centuries this entailed various forms of body shaming, incl. skinny shaming.
The author does connect some dots between fatphobia and racism, classism and other forms of oppression but the vast majority of the text centers around white men's attempts to control white women's bodies. I wish there was a much heavier emphasis on the intersectional analysis.
While some of the language feels outdated overall, there's also a lot of fatphobic language throughout this book with no acknowledgement or explanation, so I can't tell if these terms are used intentionally (and if so, why?) or if the author's own fatphobia might be showing.
The author does connect some dots between fatphobia and racism, classism and other forms of oppression but the vast majority of the text centers around white men's attempts to control white women's bodies. I wish there was a much heavier emphasis on the intersectional analysis.
While some of the language feels outdated overall, there's also a lot of fatphobic language throughout this book with no acknowledgement or explanation, so I can't tell if these terms are used intentionally (and if so, why?) or if the author's own fatphobia might be showing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming and Fatphobia
Moderate: Eating disorder, Racism, Slavery, Colonisation, and Classism