The Invisible Woman: Confronting Weight Prejudice in America [Paperback]

W. Charisse Goodman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 6, 1995

A recent survey of American women found that a great many of them would rather be dead than fat. In every corner of the United States, fat children and adults are subject to ridicule and humiliation. The word "pretty" never applies to them, they are "pigs" "cows" or "hippos," and regardless of their eating behavior, they are viewed as "out of control" compulsive eaters. When it’s time to choose teammates for a game, dates for a dance, or even just friends, heavy women are invisible.

This intelligent, political, feminist treatise explores the all-pervasive prejudice against fat women. It is about shattering the stereotypes, raising awareness about harassment, and asserting the truth that no one has the right to discriminate against anyone based on their size! Goodman exposes our culture’s widely accepted hatred of fat women, from the "health police" who feel that it is their right to approach and criticize strangers about their weight, health, or appearance, to the mass media who perpetuate inappropriate standards of beauty. The Invisible Woman also discusses weight obsession, false assumptions about diet and exercise, the fear and loathing of fat women as sexual beings, disturbing similarities between the aesthetic ideals of the Nazis and America’s quiet extermination of heavy women, and an open letter to men who think fat women are ugly.

Certain to be controversial, this book raises social and personal consciousness at pivotal time the public is finally becoming aware of weight prejudice and women are being encouraged to embrace the body with which they were born.

Great timing! No other book that we have seen examines weight prejudice from a political, cultural, personal perspective.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Goodman, who recalls a grim childhood of being teased and "condemned" as "the fat kid," brings a fierceness to her arguments about how women (in particular) are devalued for not being thin. Among her (valid) complaints are that heavy women are rarely seen in ads, movies or other media as happy, fulfilled, sexual individuals; that they are portrayed as dirty, lazy, unattractive and "lacking in self-regard"; and that women are "not popularly admired for their physical appetites, only their denial of them." However, the author's good intentions are weakened by her many dated media citations-some of the magazines and diet books she cites and quotes from are a decade or even 20 years out of date. More troubling is Goodman's attempt to link the dynamics of "weight bigotry" and "anti-Semitism," in particular, the anti-Semitism of the Nazi era. Claims the author, "The fat woman, like the Jew, is conscripted by society to carry its collective burdens of self-hate and fear." Since neither Goodman nor the pundits she criticizes supply a real definition of "too fat" (an ounce over the recent Harvard height/weight charts; medically obese; or just the size of the "average" American woman, who wears size 14 and up?), many of her provocative points lose, ahem, their weight. Goodman's attempt to deal with perceptions of fat, thin and bias in a serious manner is bold but ultimately not as convincing as it could have been.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Goodman, a legal secretary, makes a persuasive argument about weight prejudice: Negative generalizations about the character of the overweight woman, based on unexamined and uninformed beliefs, result in cruel and unwarranted treatment from both men and women. This "cultural taboo" benefits the health and weight-loss industries, pervades the media, and, in the interest of sexism, intensifies competition among women based on appearance. What is new in Goodman's analysis is the explicit parallel she draws between discrimination based on body size and racism, homophobia, and, particularly, anti-Semitism, an analogy to which she devotes a long chapter. Goodman counsels aggression against rather than acquiescence to the American obsession with obesity. Appropriate for large public libraries.?Cynthia Harrison, Federal Judicial Ctr., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 222 pages
• Publisher: Gurze Books (November 6, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0936077107
• ISBN-13: 978-0936077109
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,487,210 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Raging Against the Machine, July 11, 2000

By 

Alison (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Invisible Woman: Confronting Weight Prejudice in America (Paperback)

This is a fabulous book. It stokes the fire inside anyone sensitive to the issue of Weight Bigotry & the Oppression of People who are Fat. It made me angry- not a directionless anger but one that is motivating and powerful. The author paints a shocking picture about where the hatred of fat people has developed. She places side by side quotes by Anti-Semites and members of the Diet & Health Industry so that the awful truth about weight bigotry can be exposed. She looks at the oppression of woman & the treatment of those woman who fought for woman's rights, and compares it to the current treatment of the large woman. Ms Goodman has written a book that should be essential reading to every woman- not just fat woman. In fact its a great 'feminist' work. It is clear & easy to read. The subject matter flows from one chapter to another. 'The Invisible Woman' was a joy to read. It gave me the power to be able to dissect the comments made by those who attempt to keep the fat woman out of mind & out of sight, and then to confront them with the absurdity of their beliefs. Read this book. You won't regret it.

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant Analysis of the Complexity of Weight Prejudice, June 20, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Invisible Woman: Confronting Weight Prejudice in America (Paperback)

Goodman takes the complex, and much disregarded, subject of weight prejudice, and deconstructs it in a very clearly written analysis. She takes a look at the subtle (and not so subtle) details of culture in the United States that make the lives of large women difficult in multitudinous ways. She places the problem of Size prejudice and places it squarely beside the many other ways that our culture has learned to express hate. I found this book to be well written and clearly thought out. She shares some of her own experience as a large woman and places peoples stories alongside solid research

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Previous reviewer explains reason for this book, January 22, 2001

By 

Christine A. Lehman "stoogeswoman" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Invisible Woman: Confronting Weight Prejudice in America (Paperback)

I'd like to ask that previous reviewer a question: if we all did what he said and lost five pounds, how exactly would that make our opinions more valid? That's actually what this painfully well-written book is all about: the persistent prejudice in our culture specifically aimed at fat women. Any woman who tries to speak out against this, to say that perhaps our body weight isn't a character flaw, that perhaps we should be judged by the "content of our character," is subject to ridicule and scorn. This book is difficult to read because it is so true, and for that reason, it *must* be read.