Fat - A Fate Worse Than Death?

Women, Weight, and Appearance

Ellen Cole, Esther D Rothblum, Ruth R Thone

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780789001788
• eBook ISBN: 9781317823155
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Addiction in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Despite the gains of the women's movement, women are still judged by what they look like--and men, by what they do. Fat--A Fate Worse Than Death? offers hardy resistance to the narrow, random, and irrational appearance standards set for American women through an approach that is personal, eclectic, courageous, and funny. If you are interested in giving up your diet, throwing out your scales, and concentrating on who you are on a deeper level, this book will show you how to accept, appreciate, and even love your body!Using statistics, research, anecdotes, and personal experiences, Fat--A Fate Worse Than Death? explores how appearance standards have built a prison for women. With the book's helpful advice, reading suggestions, and list of more than 100 ways to fight looksism, sexism, ageism, and racism, you will learn to express your rights and needs, regardless of your shape or size, and tear down those prison walls. Designed to transcend the boundaries between the personal and the political, Fat--A Fate Worse Than Death? discusses:

• examples of how weight and size constitute the last socially accepted prejudice
• the national "War on Fat"
• counteracting societal influences that support weight preoccupation
• connection between appearance standards for older women and large women
• nurturing your body
• resisting male-defined standards of beauty for women
• the myth of diets and dieting
• how the body resists weight loss
• how women are disempowered by concentration on weight and appearance
• how concentrating on appearance leaves real-life issues unaddressed
• how feeling bad about yourself can turn you into a willing consumerFeminists, faculty and students of women's studies programs, aging women, women of radical politics, and other concerned women and men will find that Fat--A Fate Worse Than Death? states explicitly how women are kept powerless by subscribing to cultural and social edicts on physical appearance. Don't live silently in a society that degrades and discounts women because of their physical stature and don't let obsession with thinness keep you passive, docile, and unable to give your energy to things that really need your passion and intelligence. Read this book and learn to not only value yourself for who you are, but also to counteract American culture's equality-denying prejudices and practices.

Index

Abuse, medical, 56

Acceptance, 113

Acting Our Age (video), 186

Adornment, 18, 82

Advertisements, cigarette, 180

Advertising

budget, for food, 181

impact of, 179–182

Age, signs of, 49

“Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference,” Sister Outsider, 39

“Ageism and the Politics of Beauty,” 51, 54–55, 152–153

Aging

and appearance, 51

covering up, 21

Akido, 16

Ak-Sar-Ben Ball, 123

Alcohol Research Group, xiv

Alcoholics Anonymous, 19, 29

women’s, 107

Alcoholism

chronic, dealing with, 53

vs. obesity, 30

“All About Women and Healthy Eating,” 97

Allergies, to foods, 12

Alternatives to the Military Committee, 45

Am I Thin Enough Yet? The Cult of Thinness and the Commercialization of Identity, 16

American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, 137

American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 55

Amgen, Inc., 117

Ammelrooy, Willeke Van, 19

Angels in America, 134

Anger, Jane’s, 25

Anorexia nervosa, xiv, 97, 98. See also Eating Disorders

extent of, 180

struggling with, 155

Anorexic mind set, 48

Anti-diet movement, 68

Antonia’s Line (movie), 17

Appearance

and aging, 51

books on, 16

and comfort, 35

commenting on, 64

Engles view of, 38

hiring help for, 13

industries, 105

lined to gender and sexuality, 46

rules of acceptance, 11–12

and self-esteem, xii, 102

women and, xiii

Appetite suppressant, 99

Arizona Republic, The, 118

“At risk” drinking, xiv

At Seventy, xv

Athletes, female eating disorders, 140

Attractive, cultural expectations of, 6

Attractiveness

and financial success, 137

in older women, xiii

Percy Love on, 151

Austin-Weston Center, cosmetic surgery, 137

Autobiogr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface: The Beginning of a Journey
• SECTION I: MY OWN TRUTHS
• SECTION II: WHAT THE OUTSIDE WORLD BELIEVES
• SECTION III: TIME TO MOVE ON
• Epilogue: 100-Plus Ways to Fight Ageism, Looksism, Sexism, Racism, Fatism
• Index