(More on size acceptance) Book recs: Camryn Manheim, Jennifer Joyner and Marilyn Wann.
I wanted to share a few books on the topic of weight prejudice and size acceptance. These are the books that really helped me change my perspectives about the weight acceptance movement. (I used to have some not so feminist views on it.)
Camryn Manheim's memoir, Wake Up, I'm Fat!, is a great read about Manheim's own journey toward greater self acceptance, which is very positive, optimistic and even funny. It's also a good humored look at the less than wonderful attitudes of her critics, including people who told her she should take up smoking in order to lose weight (seriously.) It also has a terrific introduction by Rosie O'Donnell.
http://www.amazon.com/Wake-Up-Fat-Camryn-Manheim/dp/0767903633/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337310734&sr=1-1
Jennifer Joyner also has a memoir about the challenges she faced as an overweight person, though she uses the label 'morbidly obese' to describe her condition prior to getting gastric bypass surgery a few years ago. This book, Designated Fat Girl, is...less about acceptance, because Joyner eventually chose to try to lose weight for what she wrote were health reasons, but it was an important book for me to read because it really made me think about the painful side of emotional lives of overweight people, especially from a woman's point of view.
I think Joyner's story is insightful because it showcases the pitfalls of conventional medical treatments for obesity, including the perils of diet drugs and the gastric bypass procedure (she had significant complications from her surgery.) This book also acknowledges that, hey, women with obesity diagnoses still get married and have children (some in the media would have us believe no one with a weight issue can enjoy commitments or be a parent.) What Joyner wrote about her husband and family suggests that they were very supportive of her both before and after she lost weight, and that they have a good life with one another.
It's not the best written book on the planet. Some of the reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.com are severe. But don't let that stop you. It changed me. If you feel you need a fresh (and highly realistic) perspective on what overweight women go through, this memoir will help.
http://www.amazon.com/Designated-Fat-Girl-A-Memoir/dp/0762759623
Marilyn Wann's book, Fat! So? is based on the popular website of the same name. This was the first book I read which openly condemned not just the media obsession with thinness, but the prejudice of people who buy into it.
In one of the first pages, Wann asks people who have no overweight friends to think about what that says about them. When I first read that I went, "Wha? How could someone have no overweight friends? Why would anyone pick a friend based on weight or appearance?...Oh. People do that? How bad is this media obsession anyway?"
http://www.amazon.com/FAT-SO-Because-Dont-Apologize/dp/0898159954/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337310798&sr=1-2
I really recommend all of these titles. They are by no means the only ones on this important issue, but I think they are a great place to start or reacquaint oneself with the acceptance concept.
= new reply since forum marked as read
