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You Just Need to Lose Weight

You Just Need to Lose Weight

And 19 Other Myths About Fat People

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

Product Code: 3197
ISBN: 9780807006474
Format: Paperback / softback
Publisher: Beacon Press
Pages: 232
Published Date: 01/10/2023
Availability:In stock
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Price: $15.95
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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.

Aubrey Gordon is the host of the Maintenance Phase Podcast


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Introduction
How to Use This Book
A List of Terms

PART ONE: “BEING FAT IS A CHOICE’

MYTH 1
“Being fat is a choice. If fat people don’t like how they’re treated, they should just lose weight.”
MYTH 2
“Any fat person can become thin if they try hard enough. It’s just a matter of ‘calories in, calories out.’”
MYTH 3
“Parents are responsible for their child’s weight. Only bad parents let their children get fat.”
MYTH 4
“Thin people should help fat people lose weight.”
MYTH 5
“Weight loss is the result of healthy choices and should be celebrated.”

PART TWO: “BUT WHAT ABOUT YOUR HEALTH?”

MYTH 6
“Obesity is the leading cause of death in the United States.”
MYTH 7
“The BMI is an objective measure of size and health.”
MYTH 8
“Doctors are unbiased judges of fat people’s health. Fat people don’t like going to the doctor’s office because they don’t like hearing the truth.”
MYTH 9
“Fat people are emotionally damaged and cope by ‘eating their feelings.’”

PART THREE: “FACT ACCEPTANCE GLORIFIES OBESITY”

MYTH 10
“Accepting fat people ‘glorifies obesity.’”
MYTH 11
“Body positivity is about feeling better about yourself, as long as you’re happy and healthy.”
MYTH 12 “We’re in the middle of an obesity epidemic.”
MYTH 13 “Fat people don’t experience discrimination.”
MYTH 14 “I don’t like gaining weight, but I don’t treat fat people differently.”

PART FOUR: “FAT PEOPLE SHOULD . . .”

MYTH 15
“Fat people shouldn’t call themselves fat.” MYTH 16
“People who have never been fat have ‘internalized fatphobia.’”
MYTH 17
“No one is attracted to fat people. Anyone who is has a ‘fat fetish.’”
MYTH 18
“Fat people should pay for a second airplane seat.”
MYTH 19
“Skinny shaming is just as bad as fat shaming.”
MYTH 20
“Anti-fatness is the last socially acceptable form of discrimination.”

Acknowledgments
Notes
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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.

Aubrey Gordon is the host of the Maintenance Phase Podcast


Bookmark and Share
Introduction
How to Use This Book
A List of Terms

PART ONE: “BEING FAT IS A CHOICE’

MYTH 1
“Being fat is a choice. If fat people don’t like how they’re treated, they should just lose weight.”
MYTH 2
“Any fat person can become thin if they try hard enough. It’s just a matter of ‘calories in, calories out.’”
MYTH 3
“Parents are responsible for their child’s weight. Only bad parents let their children get fat.”
MYTH 4
“Thin people should help fat people lose weight.”
MYTH 5
“Weight loss is the result of healthy choices and should be celebrated.”

PART TWO: “BUT WHAT ABOUT YOUR HEALTH?”

MYTH 6
“Obesity is the leading cause of death in the United States.”
MYTH 7
“The BMI is an objective measure of size and health.”
MYTH 8
“Doctors are unbiased judges of fat people’s health. Fat people don’t like going to the doctor’s office because they don’t like hearing the truth.”
MYTH 9
“Fat people are emotionally damaged and cope by ‘eating their feelings.’”

PART THREE: “FACT ACCEPTANCE GLORIFIES OBESITY”

MYTH 10
“Accepting fat people ‘glorifies obesity.’”
MYTH 11
“Body positivity is about feeling better about yourself, as long as you’re happy and healthy.”
MYTH 12 “We’re in the middle of an obesity epidemic.”
MYTH 13 “Fat people don’t experience discrimination.”
MYTH 14 “I don’t like gaining weight, but I don’t treat fat people differently.”

PART FOUR: “FAT PEOPLE SHOULD . . .”

MYTH 15
“Fat people shouldn’t call themselves fat.” MYTH 16
“People who have never been fat have ‘internalized fatphobia.’”
MYTH 17
“No one is attracted to fat people. Anyone who is has a ‘fat fetish.’”
MYTH 18
“Fat people should pay for a second airplane seat.”
MYTH 19
“Skinny shaming is just as bad as fat shaming.”
MYTH 20
“Anti-fatness is the last socially acceptable form of discrimination.”

Acknowledgments
Notes
Be the first to submit a review on this product!
Review and Rate this Item

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