Customer Reviews

The Forbidden Body: Why Being Fat is Not a Sin (Issues in Women's Health series)

5 star:		(4)
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2 star:		(2)
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This book really is a gem. As a fat woman looking for books that will give me some power to combat the prejudice I feel this book was worth every dollar. It is written in an easy to read style, making it accessible to all and unlike many books on fat and weight prejudice this book is relevant to men as well as women. The book is loaded with facts that destroy the myths associated with being fat. After reading this book I feel armed with plenty of truths, whether it be to combat a bogus health issue or a discriminatory value judgement. This really is essential reading for anyone on the road to stopping dieting. The author always recognises that the road to self acceptance is a struggle and in fact, due to our society's current values, never ending. The section on the physical effects of stress that fat people are subjected to because of society's intolerance is truly eye opening as is the knowledge that in cultures where fat is accepted fat people live healthy and happy long lives. I can't convey fully how empowering and important this work is. I just wish I could get my mother-in-law to read it!

Shelley Bovey is a writer on health subjects, as well as a fat woman who's been through all the guilt, humiliation, and self-loathing that fat women experience constantly, so she knows whereof she writes. She argues convincingly that weight and morality have been inappropriately intertwined: the real issue isn't health but denial of the "untidier" aspects of ourselves. Excellent reading for anyone who's struggled with a "weight problem" -- and those who love them.

I don't say this about many books, but this one changed my life. It made me feel ten times better and destroyed the myths about dieting & the "dangers" of being fat. You know you're living in an insane world when you're told that your respiratory problem is due to being overweight (mine is actually due to an allergy) - a trivial misdiagnosis but in some cases it could be fatal. Read this book, even if you're a stick insect. You are free to be who and what you are, not what is prescribed by the media.

Bovey writes a convincing piece using a mix of scientific research, personal experience, and letters from her readers. The author presents dozens of pieces of evidence to support her argument that being fat does not necessarily mean being unhealthy. Bovey is angry, and it shows through her use of strong words and the occasional shard of sarcasm. The only failing of Bovey's work of non-fiction is a relative lack of organization. This disorder does not overly detract from the effect of the book, however.

Bovey's work has helped this reviewer to see fat and fat prejudice for what it is and is not. This book is recommended reading for any fat person and is directed at women specifically. It dispells taboos regarding weight and reveals that all the worry about weight is silly and utterly useless.

As someone who has struggled with eating disorders for over ten years and has been both severely underweight and overweight within the space of 18 months, I thought this book might in some way be helpful. Some of it was, but the major flaws it also contains ruined my reading of it. Bovey is angry - fair enough, but she lets her anger cloud her vision and goes much too far with many poorly-researched, aggressive arguments. In particular the points she tries to make about anorexia are extremely offensive. She narrows her focus to see only a world in which compassion is finite and the apparently selfish anorexic has stolen all of the sympathy owed to the overweight woman. That just simply isn't the way things are and anorexics are in many ways treated far worse than the overweight - force-fed and locked in isolated rooms without light or conversation until a certain weight is gained is what I remember. But this isn't the point, anyhow. It's not a competition. There is no need to try to prove your own suffering is more worthy than someone else's. The points you make should be able to stand alone. Bovey's viewpoint is extreme. She has no distance from what she is writing about, which can make for a passionate book, but also a very black-and-white attitude. Surely there is space for a middle ground of acceptance, where larger people do not have to vie for respect at the expense of others? In a truly fair world, one in which no one is discriminated against because of size, I would like to think criticizing the very thin would also be unacceptable. In many ways, Bovey's aggression reaffirms her perceived "outsider" status and allows little room for reconciliation.

I respect the author and was sympathetic to her struggle. However, this book was so filled with anger that I had to stop reading it. Prejudice, whether against all fat people, all black people, all gay people, is heinous and warrants anger, but I needed to get to the part where she grew emotionally from her struggle. I have no time for Bitterness, this is a toxic emotion and leads to illness.
So, instead of this one, read Fat?So! and read The Fat Girl's Guide to Life. those are awesome, funny, and empowering for those of us who have struggled our whole lives with the delusion, forced upon us by society, that what we weigh actually matters. Who you are matters, not what you weigh, and the only way to overcome prejudice is with humor and dignity.
Also the book,Such a Pretty Fat is okay (not great, but definitely okay), and I'm Not the New Me, at least is neutral, not angry, and is a good book. Stay far away from bitter books.