No Fat Chicks: How Big Business Profits Making Women Hate Their Bodies-How to Fight Back [Hardcover]

Terry Poulton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1997

Passionately argued and meticulously researched, No Fat Chicks is certain to interest the readers that made bestsellers of Fat Is a Feminist Issue, The Beauty Myth, and Hunger Pains. Journalist Terry Poulton explores exactly how big business glorifies emaciation--and why women have become willing to pursue the mirage of the "perfect" body, even at the cost of their lives.

Editorial Reviews

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"Never in the history of the whole hapless world," Terry Poulton writes, "has there been a hoax as lucrative as the billion-dollar brainwash. It is the closest thing to alchemy ever discovered--with a formula that turns fat into gold, and prejudice into profit." A former columnist for the Toronto Star and frequent contributor to high-profile magazines, Poulton has been there. After losing 65 pounds in an arduous 6-month stint, all the while receiving praise and accolades from fans and readers, Terry Poulton rapidly began "reinflating." Of her ordeal Poulton writes, "There's something only Oprah Winfrey and I know from actual experience: hell is having to show up fat when the whole country knows you're supposed to be thin."

No Fat Chicks distinguishes itself from similar exposés by focusing on the huge profits made from wannabe waifs in their avid consumption of weight-loss services. Accented by her astute critique of cultural assumptions (whose ideal is thin, anyway?), Poulton writes with a journalist's investigative prowess, raising the question (inflected with both wit and rage) of why so many women spend their lives chasing the illusion of a "perfect" body, a challenge most of them are biologically predestined to fail. Strengthening her argument are the struggles and fates of people such as Christina Onassis, Jane Fonda, Sally Fields, and Olympic gymnast Christy Henrich, proving that information is indeed power and signaling hope that this scam is perhaps on its way to an end.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 273 pages
• Publisher: Birch Lane Pr (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559724234
• ISBN-13: 978-1559724234
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,559,117 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Expose on target - but cut the cliches in the next printing, July 30, 1998

By A Customer

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This review is from: No Fat Chicks: How Big Business Profits Making Women Hate Their Bodies-How to Fight Back (Hardcover)

The author's refreshing honesty about the exploitation inherent in the weight loss industry is excellent. Though I was sorry she did not develop this particular section further, it was encouraging to see that someone will come out in print about the condescending contempt that those not meeting the ideal of thinness receive from many doctors.

Unfortunately, Ms Poulton unwittingly reinforces some of the very stereotypes that expose larger women to contempt. It is very true that, as many large women come to know, even avidly observing a diet can lead to significant weight loss, but one who continues to follow the diet finds that doing so does not lead her to thinness - eventually, weight loss stops dead, and the reducing diet becomes "maintenance" of its own accord. Her tiresome reference to her "comfort eating", which frequently is not at all the reason that thinness cannot be attained, contradicts her "diets don't work" position. It only! reinforces the common but untrue stereotype that diets don't work because people start overeating!

The author makes enough references to her rigid lowfat diet to make it contradictory for her to continue to insist she does not believe in diets - "a rose by any name...". Also, she apparently is not aware that many heavy women have achieved some success with weight loss with the very diets she condemns. It also seems puzzling that one who condemns the diet industry, and appropriately so, continues to say that she is in favour of weight control and opposed to obesity. How, one wonders, does she expect this to happen, when she herself admits that many of us will never be thin? A size ten is "obese" by the current standards!

Overall, the book is worthwhile, but the contradictions can do there share of harm. The sort of doctors who treat overweight women with contempt, for example, do not need to be further convinced that these same women would be thin we! re they not "turning to comfort foods."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit repetitive..., December 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: No Fat Chicks: How Big Business Profits Making Women Hate Their Bodies-How to Fight Back (Hardcover)

Although I am of the "health, not size matters" mindset, I had a hard time getting through this book.

Several times throughout the first chapter, many pages apart, she'd introduce Twiggy as if it were the first time she ever spoke about it. While the role Twiggy's past popularity played in the way society now views fat people is noteworthy, the way Ms Poulton conveyed it was less than impressive.

It appears her choppy writing style spread to other topics through most chapters. With each chapter I read, I'd be thinking "Didn't I read this exact same phrase earlier?"

It is unfortunate because she has a very important message to send to the general public about size acceptance.

I am giving this three stars because despite the poor editing job, the topic is a must-read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars top notch read, October 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: No Fat Chicks: How Big Business Profits Making Women Hate Their Bodies-How to Fight Back (Hardcover)

this is a wonderful book for anyone and everyone who struggles with body image problems, doubts, etc. Ms. Poulton gives a compelling argument for "it's all about the money" assessment that she makes. I ended up feeling very angry at the medical community, fashion/movie/glamour industries, etc for selling the idea that "thin is in". my motto now is "fat's where it's at" and I applaud her efforts at encouraging people to look at the way that society has been manipulated into hating themselves so that corporations can get FAT on our money and self-hate.