The release date for the English version of 'What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat' by
Aubrey Gordon is Nov 2020. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
An incendiary critique of the societal and structural prejudice that plus-size individuals face, written by the author of Your Fat Friend, will help us advance the cause of fat justice.
There is anti-fatness everywhere. Aubrey Gordon explores the societal structures and cultural attitudes that have resulted in people being denied basic needs just because they are overweight in her book What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat. She also urges social justice movements to take plus-sized people's experiences into account. Gordon moves the conversation further toward authentic fat activism, which includes ending legal weight discrimination, providing equal access to health care for large people, increasing access to public spaces, and putting an end to anti-fat violence. This is in contrast to the current wave of memoirs and quasi-self-help books that encourage readers to love and accept themselves. I didn't come to body positivity for self-esteem, as she contends. It was for social justice that I came.
Through her own experiences and those of others, ranging from somewhat obese to extremely obese, she comes to the conclusion that being obese in our culture is viewed as an unavoidable failure that is morally reprehensible, unlovable, and unforgivable. Being overweight invites others to show contempt, dread, and subtle worry. Being overweight is a denial of empathy and humanity. Research indicates that obese victims of sexual assault are less likely than their slender counterparts to be believed and to report various crimes; 27% of extremely obese women and 13% of extremely obese men attempt suicide; more than 50% of physicians characterize their obese patients as uncomfortable, ugly, and noncompliant; and in 48 states, it is permissible—even common—to refuse employment to applicants based solely on their size.
Everyone must work to advance fat justice and alter discriminatory practices and mindsets. The most important instrument for bringing about a seismic shift in the way we view, discuss, and interact with our bodies—thin and fat—is What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat.