Has anyone else read Fat is a Feminist Issue by Susie Orbach?

[rolandbrowning]

I finished it about a week ago and have not eat compulsively since. I feel it has completely changed my attitude to food and eating. I think it is great! Anyone else?

Should be 'eaten' of course.

Yes. Great book. IMO she has not risen to such heights in any of her other writing, but hey, not everyone gets to change the world even once, eh?

Found kaftans strangely alluring afterwards though.

I've always meant to read it but never got round to it. Is it a 'self help' type book then? I'd always imagined it was more a political analysis.

no i haven't. but i did recently see her referring to said book as 'fifi' which made me love her.

This book saved my health and sanity nearly 30 years ago when I was a depressed bulimic undergraduate.

Not sure how well it will have "aged" though, women don't seem comfortable with the "F" word these days! (Check out the Delia thread on AIBU )

I must admit I had always assumed it was a political analysis as well ProfYaffle. The only reason I read it was because of a review on amazon of the Paul Mckenna I can make you thin which said that PM had ripped off Susie Orbach. I would be surprised if Paul McKenna hadn't read it, put it that way!

It is the only book I have read that has any bearing on my food ishoos at all. I can now see a way forward and it is such a relief to just know that it is ok to eat what I want, and to trust my body to tell me when it needs food, and when it had had enough. I can't speak highly enough of it and I want to make sure that anyone else who could be helped by it is aware of it.

MrsFlittersnoop, the text is still relevant, possibly it needs to be re-titled though, or I think a lot of people will not realise what it is. I think it will also save my health and sanity, glad to hear it saved yours. Poor Delia, she'll never know.

I was very overweight as a child and young teenager and after losing a lot of weight in my mid-teens, felt I HAD to be as thin as possible in order to be liked. Lost another 20lbs in my first 6 weeks at Uni and ended up on AD's prescribed by a (very unhelpful) psychiatrist and eventually dropped out of my course.

FIFI (love the acronym!) helped put many of my ishoos into perspective. It was a groundbreaking book at the time. BTW, Susie Orbach was Princess Diana's eating disorder therapist.

I love Fifi and Susie!

Fantastic Book

i read it as a (fat) kid and it impressed me at the time, but i don't really remember anything about it now, and it clearly didn't impress me enough to keep me from falling into disordered eating patterns in my teens/early 20s.

coincidentally i've recently discovered the "health at every size" movement (e.g. kate harding's blog) that seems to be the modern equivalent (via the bmi thread a week or so back). i think it's particularly relevant given all the current obesity hysteria.

but then i've always identified as a feminist, that bit i don't have a problem with - the bit that says diets never work i have a much harder time assimiliating!

milleniwmffalcon, just read some of that blog and it's really interesting! I'm going to link to it on another thread started by dollparts.

Dollparts, I just saw a link to this blog on another thread, it's about fat acceptance, I know you want to lose weight, but I think that the first step to that is to stop hating yourself. I found it really interesting. Might be worth a look. Hope everything is going ok for you. Here it is

Would have been better posted on the right thread though.

Haven't read that one, but am reading Bodies at the moment.

Also, I've read The Beauty Myth, which is a similar sort of thing, imo.

Yes, have indeed read the book (20+ years ago) and still have a copy of it at home.

Another fantastic book on the same subject is OVERCOMING OVEREATING. I think someone else recommended that to dollparts on her thread too.

I am still overweight but am very happy to be free of the curse of compulsive/ obsessive eating.

Thanks oregonianabroad and MintyAeroEgg, I'll add those to my list! I am also still overweight, but feel a lot happier and not out of control anymore, also I have been running a lot more frequently, so it's all good

Another good one is the fat girl's guide to life. Very funny.