Skinny Bitch Phenomenon
I think there were posts about this when the first book came out, but I'm just overflowing with frustration and some conflicted feelings after listening to a lengthy radio broadcast about Skinny Bitch and Skinny Bitch in the Kitch.
On the one hand, I was waking up to people talking about veganism on the radio. This never happens.
On the other hand, after they had interviewed one of the authors, who did her usual M.O. of talking mostly about ethical veganism and admitting that the title and message are just an attention-grabber, they interviewed two other women who criticised the books. A troubling amount of the criticism was warranted, and/but it all got mixed in with criticism I feel was off the mark (largely because it was criticism that didn't take the aims of veganism into account at all-- but then again, can I really fault this, considering the very important problems with the book that have little to do with veganism?) The report ended with a soundbite from a restaurant owner talking about her new steakhouse and how it breaks the stereotype that meat is masculine by explicitly appealing to women. In other words, by the end the report was really disappointing, and left me ruminating on the extent to which these books might be culturally missing the mark.
On the one hand, I was waking up to people talking about veganism on the radio. This never happens.
On the other hand, after they had interviewed one of the authors, who did her usual M.O. of talking mostly about ethical veganism and admitting that the title and message are just an attention-grabber, they interviewed two other women who criticised the books. A troubling amount of the criticism was warranted, and/but it all got mixed in with criticism I feel was off the mark (largely because it was criticism that didn't take the aims of veganism into account at all-- but then again, can I really fault this, considering the very important problems with the book that have little to do with veganism?) The report ended with a soundbite from a restaurant owner talking about her new steakhouse and how it breaks the stereotype that meat is masculine by explicitly appealing to women. In other words, by the end the report was really disappointing, and left me ruminating on the extent to which these books might be culturally missing the mark.