Of Books, Fat Positive AND Negative
Hello everyone!
For a project at work I need to find a book with a cover I identify with in some way, and after considering favourite novels I've decided I would rather shake things up a little bit and use a book that makes a statement. I was looking for feminist books at first, but the ones I wanted weren't available at my library, so I then thought I wanted to choose a title that spoke of fat acceptance. I know there's been a great discussion on here about books, but I only found 3 entries for the "literature" tag and none of them were it.
Can you remind me what some of the fabulous books are that are out there on the topic of fat acceptance, healthy body image, etc?
I also have a very different question that is book-related. I just finished a novel earlier today where one of the main characters was described as an incredibly fat woman. There was a lot of description of her fat rolls, jiggling rear, and flapping waves of cellulite. In the middle of the story, she hits on one of the main characters and he has a mental monologue about how he would only get with her if he drank too much beer and so he swears off drinking for a while. In the meantime, there is a "petite" female character who is described as never being refused by men and half the males she comes across in the story are practically drooling over her.
I could go on, but the main point is that the author can't refer to this character without some bevy of negative adjectives about her size or fat. And there is even a part where he vaguely intonates she is about two hundred pounds. I can't figure out whether he just has no idea what he is talking about, or really views 200 pound women as being that fat, but there's no way the description he gives is of a 200 pound woman. But the numbers mean nothing anyway-- the point is that the fat woman is supposed to be hideous.
Now I know this is not the first time this has happened in a book, or a movie, or a story of any type marketed for public consumption, but it's the first time I've read such a thing in any sort of memorable history for me. And I feel very much like writing the author and telling him what I think, but then I hesitate. He might very well just write me off as "some fat woman offended just because she's fat". And I'd be lying if I didn't say that was part of it. But it's more than that. I am offended in defense of fat women EVERYWHERE.
If you were me, would you try writing to the author? Or would you chalk it up as yet another pop culture attack on fat and not waste your time trying to change one person's mind?
For a project at work I need to find a book with a cover I identify with in some way, and after considering favourite novels I've decided I would rather shake things up a little bit and use a book that makes a statement. I was looking for feminist books at first, but the ones I wanted weren't available at my library, so I then thought I wanted to choose a title that spoke of fat acceptance. I know there's been a great discussion on here about books, but I only found 3 entries for the "literature" tag and none of them were it.
Can you remind me what some of the fabulous books are that are out there on the topic of fat acceptance, healthy body image, etc?
I also have a very different question that is book-related. I just finished a novel earlier today where one of the main characters was described as an incredibly fat woman. There was a lot of description of her fat rolls, jiggling rear, and flapping waves of cellulite. In the middle of the story, she hits on one of the main characters and he has a mental monologue about how he would only get with her if he drank too much beer and so he swears off drinking for a while. In the meantime, there is a "petite" female character who is described as never being refused by men and half the males she comes across in the story are practically drooling over her.
I could go on, but the main point is that the author can't refer to this character without some bevy of negative adjectives about her size or fat. And there is even a part where he vaguely intonates she is about two hundred pounds. I can't figure out whether he just has no idea what he is talking about, or really views 200 pound women as being that fat, but there's no way the description he gives is of a 200 pound woman. But the numbers mean nothing anyway-- the point is that the fat woman is supposed to be hideous.
Now I know this is not the first time this has happened in a book, or a movie, or a story of any type marketed for public consumption, but it's the first time I've read such a thing in any sort of memorable history for me. And I feel very much like writing the author and telling him what I think, but then I hesitate. He might very well just write me off as "some fat woman offended just because she's fat". And I'd be lying if I didn't say that was part of it. But it's more than that. I am offended in defense of fat women EVERYWHERE.
If you were me, would you try writing to the author? Or would you chalk it up as yet another pop culture attack on fat and not waste your time trying to change one person's mind?