Customer Reviews

Fat Is a Feminist Issue

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I haven't been a big fan of the concept of feminism in the past and I had to be talked into buying this book by a friend, but I have to say it has done wonders for me, my attitude and my understanding of my relationship with food, fat and my family. UNlike other self-help books, this one is not designed to take you step-by-step through the process, but was, instead, designed to help people create their own support groups to discuss issues associated with weight and compulsive eating.

I have never considered myself a compulsive eater, so this is not something I would have gone to a group for or read about. But the book holds many insights around weight, attention, nurturance, the ability to care for oneself, a woman's relationship with her mother and more that hit home with me. I finished the book a few days ago and I've already dropped four pounds. I'm not dieting, but I have been addressing the issues that the book triggered for me. I expect that the weight will continue to come off naturally as a result of this work being completed. It's great to have had this resource.

I first read a similar book by Evelyn Tribole called "Intuitive Eating". Both of these books approach weight loss the same way - figure out why you are eating, and then work at it from a psychological approach, rather than going on a specific diet.

What I like about Evelyn's book is that it is for the individual to do by herself, whereas Susan's book is more for a group therapy approach. She also has some other interesting reasons about why I might be overweight, which made for very interesting reading.

However, between the two books, I preferred Evelyn's because it gave more specific information to work with and let me do it by myself, rather than a full support group (as a stay-at-home mom with a 3-year-old, very important).

I did appreciate both books though, because they emphasized the same thing - the overeating is not because of lack of willpower, but because of psychological reasons - and that makes lots of sense to me.

This book introduced me to the idea that compulsive eaters like myself have something invested in being overweight, which helped me understand my own lose-weight-gain weight cycles. The ideas in this book plus a 6-month program with a health counselor got me off the dieting cycle I've been on for the past 25 years. Going from fat to thinner -- changing my body shape dramatically -- brings up a lot of fear and anger with me, and this book has helped me acknowledge that. Outside help has been great, too. Though the title seems radical, its not a feminist rally cry. I think its really helpful for people struggling with their body size.

I first read this book in 1978. Twenty-three years later, I am so happy to have just read this again. One of the most valuable questions that Susie Orbach asks is, "How will I be who I wish to be if I look as I am supposed to look?" This is a question allows women to take ownership for their mind, body and soul. It's an excellent question to ask myself, in times when normally I might doubt my eating choices, my beauty, my being enough, or who my ability to be open to others, and still have boundaries in place.

I am eternally grateful for this book. Two excellent follow ups to this book, are, "Fat and Furious," by Judi Hollis, then "Overcoming Overeating," by Carol Munter and Jane Hirschmann.

I first read this book in 1978. And I'm so happy to have read this a few times more.

One of the most valuable questions that Susie Orbach asks is, "How will I be who I wish to be, if I look as I am supposed to look?" I suggest that when you ask this question, do so with the intention of envisioning an answer that works well for you, regardless of what you have seen, "out there." This is a question allows women to take ownership of their mind, body and soul.

Each year, I interview high school students, regarding their eating and body image beliefs. And I have seen a growing problem. By this time in their lives, both women and men now, get so caught up in an imaged protrayed by all forms of the media, that we can lose sight of who we are really meant to be.

The reasons for the problem have a long history with women, and a different reason for women than men. As men are complimented more on how they look, not as a means to flirt with them, but as a measurement of having what it takes, they are being pushed into some of the body image issues that women have a long history with.

This is also an excellent question to ask myself, in times when normally I might doubt my eating choices, my beauty, my being enough, or how my ability to be open to others, and still have boundaries in place.

I am eternally grateful for this book. Three excellent follow up books to this book, are, "My Mother Myself," by Nancy Friday," "Fat and Furious," by Judi Hollis, then "Overcoming Overeating," by Carol Munter and Jane Hirschmann.

This is the newest edition of the two most famous books from the Women's Therapy Centre, the one that got us all started back in the early 80's. At that time, this kind of thinking was revolutionary. The book inspired such well known authors as Geneen Roth, Mary Pipher, Jane Hirschmann, Carol Munter and many others. The very notion that dieting doesn't work and that society's expectations of women's bodies was what needed to be challenged was first introduced here. Susie Orbach gets right to the heart of eating problems with these now standard guided fantasies and techniques to tune into physical hunger rather than using dieting to try to ignore it. The concepts are as timely now as they ever were, after almost 20 years of being put to the test by women and therapists all over the world.

I don't know why no one else has reviewed this book yet. Fat is a Feminist Issue was first published in 1978. I believe it's been continually in print since then. Many current "diet" authors are greatly indebted to Susie Orbach's work but I rarely see them give her credit.

I was recently re-reading my much thumbed copy of FIAFI to supplement the information in Martha Beck's book The 4-Day Win and was struck by how our culture is now giving men the same messages about looks to men that used to previously be given only to women. (You think I'm kidding -- Men's Health reads like a male version of Glamour or Cosmo.) In the 21st C, fat is apparently not just a feminist issue but an issue for men and children as well.

While the language is a bit dated, the content is not. Most libraries have a copy of this book--because it really is a classic. Check it out that way if no other.

Fat is a Feminist Issue is one of the few books on weight that deals in reality, the reality that our bodies vary, rather than encouraging us to conform to cultural values. It's also one of the few that recognizes fat can serve a positive function in one's life (even though this positive may be overbalanced by negatives). An excellent "companion volume" to FIAFI is Jean Antonello's How To Become Naturally Thin by Eating More - Antonello tells us WHY the Fat is a Feminist Issue philosophy works for many women to help them lose weight.

Even better is Antonello's more current volume, Breaking Out of Food Jail: How to Free Yourself from Diets and Problem Eating, Once and For All. Food Jail gets more into the psychological aspects of why it can be difficult to lose weight, and is more balanced that either her first or FIAFI. But either of Antonello's books fill that gap that is FIAFI's one real flaw - FIAFI doesn't deal with improving the diet. Eating normally in terms of eating to appetite works fine for some, but some of us need to eat a better diet in order to make our bodies release fat. Antonello discusses that, FIAFI doesn't.

OTOH, FIAFI deals with the idea that some of us like our fat, that some women feel like they're losing protection in losing weight, a concept Antonello completely misses. FIAFI deals in a broader spectrum of women's experiences.

This is a book I have heard mentioned every now and then for many years and I have always wanted to know what the book was about. So when I saw a cheap used copy I couldn't resist buying it to find out.

I'm somewhat overweight and have many serious health problems, which contribute to my weight issues in a number of ways. I didn't expect to relate so much to the different reasons that I could be choosing to stay overweight, but after reading this book I now have no doubt that at least part of my inability to maintain a healthier weight is not physical.

I'm a feminist, of course. (I don't understand at all any woman who wouldn't want to be identified as a feminist, someone who supports equal rights for men and women, and who find the term cringe-worthy. It is only a terrible term if you believe all the anti-feminist and status quo supporting media and propaganda and so on, surely?) But I was surprised in reading this book how much of it really hit home with me, but how little any of it had to do with my gender or with feminism!

Not all the possible reasons for staying overweight had to do with feminism, as the title of this book may suggest. In fact, the vast majority of them did not. Some of the parts which did have to do with gender, such as mother-daughter competitiveness issues, I didn't relate to at all, possibly because they the book is very dated. (My mother has always worked and so doesn't envy my ability to work, for example.)

Some of the book is very dated, but it is easy enough to skip over those parts and to spend time contemplating the more timeless concepts. I'd very much recommend this book for men dealing with high or low weight issues, as well as women. It is a classic and you're sure to gain some real insight into your unconscious thoughts and actions by reading it.

This book provides lots of food for thought!

Jodi Bassett, The Hummingbirds' Foundation for M.E.

I picked this book up for free at a lodge in California six years ago when I was on vacation. I was almost twenty one at the time and weighed over 220 pounds. This book absolutely changed my life and I can happily say that I have lost 70 pounds since then in a slow, healthy way.

Susie Orbach encourages the reader to completely redefine her views about her body and her weight. The most groundbreaking part of this book is the idea that fat serves a purpose. As a girl growing up in the nineties with thin images on television, magazines, and the advent of airbrushing away fat in advertising to make our "ideal" not only unattainable but also soul crushing to be compared to, I have to admit I was incredulous. Fat is bad! Fat is a weakness, I am weak, and my fat makes me less of a person to everyone I meet. What are you doing telling me I have a vested interest in staying that way? Why would I want to STAY fat? However, as you read on it becomes so obvious, almost a revelation.

To many people's minds, fat is a rational response to emotional and physical trauma. We use fat to de-sexualize ourselves in a hyper sexual world. We use fat to say "No!" when we don't feel we have the right to say it out loud. We use fat to rebel, to say that we are more than our body, that we aspire to be taken seriously. This book is about recognizing what fat means to YOU, and how to break free from it when it is no longer serving its purpose.

Combined with Geneen Roth's "Breaking Free From Emotional Eating" I would say that the information in this book helped me lose weight (and actually keep it off!) more than any diet I've tried. And what's more, I am happy with myself and value my body and my spirit.