Fat is a Feminist Issue

[Butters83]

Has anyone read it? Keen to hear peoples thoughts!

It's amazing. Revolutionised my relationship with ny body; helped me understand why I ate the way I did and how that fit into the patriarchy. Definitely read it!

My mum has this book when I was a kid. Is it the one with the womans flesh hanging up like a swimsuit? That cover has stayed with me.

Have read it about three times, I love it! It has never quite worked for me sadly in terms of breaking a diet/binge cycle, for various reasons. But it is does encourage a positive attitude to your body which is great.

I think where it falls down is it assumes all foods are broadly equal in terms of how they affect you. So, if you are hungry and fancy some chocolate cake, the book would say, fine, wait until you are hungry, eat slowly and mindfully, enjoy it and stop when you are full. But I think biochemically, the sugar rise, insulin dump, sugar drop, impact on leptin and ghrelin stuff is more complicated. So my body wants more cake!

Still a great read.

Is it the one with the womans flesh hanging up like a swimsuit? That cover has stayed with me.

No, that's the original cover design on Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch.

www.abebooks.co.uk/Female-Eunuch-Germaine-Greer-Granada/30073262276/bd?cm_mmc=ggl--UK_Shopp_Tradestandard--product_id=COUK9780586054062NEW-_-keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAjw1f_pBRAEEiwApp0JKP3PmcsWRMNE_4WHEuF4_dXCsSZw50upFWC65aq2CY7EvKhBkTRLwBoCdJoQAvD_BwE

Ah yes, thank you

It’s a very powerful and memorable image, isn’t it? And very relevant to today’s climate.

I have read the companion book to it - Hunger Strike, on anorexia.

It’s excellent.

I got fat by eating my anger. I was left to care for elderly parents by siblings who got on with their lives and gave not two fucks about how hard it was for me, in fact, they relished in lecturing me on where I was going wrong. I had support, thankfully, from my GP and social services, etc, and got through it, but three stone heavier. I ate because I could not scream with my mouth full. I buried the pain under a layer of blubber and family sized bags of doritos.

For anyone wanting something a little lighter around relearning to love the pleasure of food without any toxic diet/weight loss culture, I fully recommend 'Eat Up!' By Ruby Tandoh.

Eat Up seems like the opposite of what Orbach is saying!

NottonightJosepheen its a recipe book with little food anecdotes and memories. Absolutely nothing tied to weight loss or 'good/bad' food nonsense. For example, when you get an ice cold can of coca cola and you hear the SPPPPPP as you open it and get that first sugary cold delicious fizzy hit. Or collecting blackberries with your grandparents using an old ice cream tub to carry them home with sticky blue fingers. Really delightful.

Reading it reminded me that food is AMAZING in all forms and helped me dismantle the whole 'I cant/shouldn't' because of food moralization and a fear of weight gain.

Yes! I read it and then lost six stone soon afterwards! It was the book that made me realize (some) women, including me, are fat because they want and choose to be. Thus they can also choose not to be. I worked out that losing weight was within my power and wouldn’t magically happen unless I made it happen. So I did. Before, I hadn’t really realized that fat can be a self-protective mechanism that’s an opt-out from objectification - but that made a lot of sense to me.

It's brilliant. Explains the unconscious reasons why women eat when they're not hungry and the unconscious meanings of 'fatness' and 'thinness' in a culture that values how women look above all else. Strongly recommend. Just very sad that it remains relevant 40-odd years after first publication.

Just started reading it! How odd. I'm having all sorts of useful pennies drop about fat as power,as well as protection.

I would like to read it . I have joined a couple of intuitive eating face book groups that have been a huge help

Oh god, yes. In my twenties dealing with disordered eating. Really opened my eyes and recommended to many of my friends since.

Thank you for the reminder! Read it about 20 years ago. Had to dive deep into the bookcases - lo and behold I found it!

I read it years ago but yes it was damn good though not perfect. A fine inhalation of anger and genuine empowerment.

I have not heard of this book. I have anorexia and am trying to recover - would anyone recommend this book in that situation?

Have a look at 'Bodies' which Orbach wrote in the 90s and which reflects on how body issues mutated from the time of FIFI to a brave new world of cosmetic surgery and even greater scrutiny of female and now male bodies. So ever-relevant. I bloody love her.

@BooLooBoo yes very much so. It gives a great insight into what fat and thin mean in our culture - when women have very little voice or control, and a lot of scrutiny of our physical form, eating or not eating becomes a powerful mode of expression. So for some of us eating is rebellion; for others it's not eating. For some, being thin is compliance and for others ebing fat is compliance. For me, I had a mother with an eating disorder who along with my stepfather berated me and other women for being fat constantly, so I ate out of defiance and to punish them. My sister craved acceptance and wanted to remain child-like as that was rewarded both in the family and on a social level, so she developed an eating disorder as well. We both benefitted massively from FIFI!