Book Review: You Just Need to Lose Weight

"You Just Need to Lose Weight" by Aubrey Gordon
Published by Beacon Press on January 10, 2023
Genres: Self-Help / Personal Growth / Self-Esteem, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Social Science / Discrimination
Pages: 224
Format: eBook
Source: Library
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A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
AN INDIE BESTSELLER

“One of the great thinkers of our generation . . . I feel fresher and smarter and happier for sitting down with her.”—Jameela Jamil, iWeigh Podcast

The co-host of the Maintenance Phase podcast and creator of Your Fat Friend equips you with the facts to debunk common anti-fat myths and with tools to take action for fat justice

The pushback that shows up in conversations about fat justice takes exceedingly predicable form. Losing weight is easy—calories in, calories out. Fat people are unhealthy. We’re in the midst of an obesity epidemic. Fat acceptance “glorifies obesity.” The BMI is an objective measure of size and health. Yet, these myths are as readily debunked as they are pervasive.

In “You Just Need to Lose Weight,” Aubrey Gordon equips readers with the facts and figures to reframe myths about fatness in order to dismantle the anti-fat bias ingrained in how we think about and treat fat people. Bringing her dozen years of community organizing and training to bear, Gordon shares the rhetorical approaches she and other organizers employ to not only counter these pernicious myths, but to dismantle the anti-fat bias that so often underpin them.

As conversations about fat acceptance and fat justice continue to grow, “You Just Need to Lose Weight” will be essential to ensure that those conversations are informed, effective, and grounded in both research and history.

This book is great for a person who is just coming around to the idea of anti-fat bias as a concept existing! I love Aubrey Gordon, as always. I also loved the reflection questions and action items at the end. However, I am active fan of Maintenance Phase, and I am not just coming around to the idea of anti-fat bias existing, so I was not the target audience for this book. I will go back and read her other first book instead, probably. Or, well, it is going on my towering TBR. Four stars.

Fulfilled “a book about media literacy” for the Read Harder 2024 challenge.