Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia | 
pickIlluminating and infuriating.
The timeline alone says it all, when it comes to what chronologically promoted fat phobia:
First racism seen in art and 'science' justifying colonialism and slavery, then religious ascetic morality further promoting racism and controlling women, and THEN unsubstantiated claims about health associated with insurance companies to help medical industries and doctor reputations alongside eugenic concerns, 1/?
So profiting off the suffering of others has been a trademark of multinational corporations since the very beginning. This is my surprised face. 😑
Eee...😬
Sometimes sharing is not caring.
pickI confess, I wasn‘t expecting to like this book. I started listening almost on a whim and was immediately drawn in. It‘s important to note this is written from a historians point of view. Some of the content is truly upsetting but is laid out in a very matter of fact way. It involves a lot of art history, which I found fascinating, and I learned so much. The audio was excellent also. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
so-soA historical review of European attitudes towards the human body. It reads like an academic paper. I found the first section on representations of beauty in art to be the most interesting. Later chapters just read like an information dump.
so-soI was surprised this book was so centered on whiteness and white weight issues. Black (or “other racial and ethnic minorities” as she often writes) are peripheral and brought in as counterpoints to whiteness. Needless to say, I was shocked to find out the author is Black. It's not a bad book, but it didn‘t come across as “the racial origins of our fat phobia.” It was more a history of white people‘s weight issues. #audiobook (more details ⬇️⬇️)
@Megabooks One of my friends put this on their Goodreads TBR, & I thought you would be interested. Don‘t know if you‘ve read it.
pickGroundbreaking in its historical analysis of the racist origins of fatphobia, Sabrina Strings‘ Fearing the Black Body tells the story of how much expectations of women‘s bodies over the past two centuries have changed and how those expectations have arisen out of anti-Black racism. This is a university press book and I am looking forward to seeing a less academic treatment at some point, taking this research and applying it to today‘s context.
pickI enjoyed this book - an ambitious undertaking to connect history of “ideal“ women's body types to the introduction of black women through slavery into European society as the turning point of opinion on women's fatness. Provides a critical look at ways that men's contributions through art, society, &medicine continued to use norms as a way to degrade black women and oppress white women, and for white folk to continue to push white supremacy.
The fear of the imagined “fat black woman” was created by racial and religious ideologies that have been used to both degrade black women and discipline white women.
My ARCs calling to me today! Excited for totally different reasons. Which ones call to you? A little more info in the comments :)
6y
The author shows how in addition to the black body, it becomes very clear that convenient narratives that championed white supremacy and a slender white aesthetic also sought to other, denigrate, harm with impunity, all people of colour as well as Jewish people, Southern and Eastern European immigrants to the US, and anyone of a 'lower 4mo
Racism and fatphobia have often been the tool of commerce and the reigning social class when the white 'upper class' find it an expedient way to keep themselves on top.
I'll admit the seeming constant back and forth on women being 'too skinny, too fat' in Kellogg's day felt a bit muddled in providing evidence for the book's argument. 4mo
or themselves.
Negative result for all! 🤦🏼♂️
Sidebar:
Y'know it was mildly funny when I found out a few years ago that Kellogg cereal guy was anti-masturbation, but finding out he was a pro-eugenics, white supremacist writing racist pseudo-medical screeds is just exhausting.
⚠️racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, sexism, fatphobia, disordered eating 4mo