Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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."

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.

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.

I appreciated the wealth of information contained in this well-researched book. I learned a great deal about the diet industry, and agree with Ms. Poulton that we are tricked into spending our money on something that isn't attainable. However, as one who suffers with super morbid obesity, I have never experienced the kind of discrimination that Ms. Poulton describes. I have certainly experienced discrimination throughout my life, but never the amount in a single day, as described by Ms. Poulton. She came across as angry and at times, vindictive. Those parts of the book turned me off. Otherwise, it was very informative, and enlightening.

Terry Poulton is nothing if not passionate about what it means to be a "Fat Chick" today. Her writing style is sometimes cumbersome and awkward (she sometimes tells you what she is going to say, says it, then tells you what she said) but her subject matter is so compelling and so well researched you won't mind too much. The book is worthwhile for its bibliography alone, a "further reading" list of excellent books that will keep you happily engaged for a long time!

Ms. Poulton takes us on a journey of discovery and her findings are not pretty. What we have long suspected is true: our religious preoccupation with our weight is robbing us of our zest for living. Women and men should take the time to read this book. No Fat Chicks just might be the impetus women need to stop hating our bodies and start applying pressure to the forces against us. This book provides a long overdue wake up call to anyone who believes women should be solely valued for their beauty and their waist size

Poulton's book is an eye-opening look at how the beauty & fashion industries get us to keep spending money on thinness by positing an ideal of beauty that is absolutely impossible for 99% of women to achieve. Then we (I) waste time, money, and huge amounts of energy chasing after it and feeling bad about my "failure" to get there. This book offers solace--and empowering analysis--to people of whatever size who've wasted any part of their life feeling not good enough, and encouragement toward reclaiming our sense of where our real beauty, and our power, comes from.

I must commend the author for her excellent writing. What a joy it is to read something by someone who knows how to write. The message however seemed mixed and somewhat confused. I was not at all sure just what the author was saying (or trying to say?). It seems impossible to me that after a lifetime of yo-yo eating one could find what the author describes as one's 'normal appetite'. I agreed with much of her statements, but in the end, I felt her general concluding remarks did not really make sense. Just what is the author looking for? To be thin? To be thin enough? To diet? Not to diet? For many people, to stay thin (or thin enough for them) a 'normal appetite' is a diet. Unfortunate....but true. I still loved the book. It was a great read by a very good writer.

The bottom line of Poulton's "No More Fat Chicks", is that the weight-loss industry is nothing more than a multi-billion dollar attempt to repress, depress and impress women into becoming unrealistic Twiggy clones.

Now, whilst the above might indeed be true, there is one major point that Poulton never seems to fully address - that is, obesity IS a leading cause of heart disease (and therefore death) around the world, and it IS responsible for a myriad of health problems ranging from diabetes to cancer. This should never be forgotten or ignored when discussing obesity.

Also, the author's sources are sometimes taken out of context, and in other examples simply not present at all. As an example, on p.56 she talks about a woman who "was allegedly told by her doctor that her obesity prevented pregnancy". There is actually more truth to this statement than is conceded to by the author (estrogen is stored in fat cells; the more fat cells you have, generally the more estrogen you have in your body, and unopposed estrogen is a leading cause of anovulation), but this is never addressed. Another example is on p.64, when Poulton cites "20 deaths...within the first 6 years...", referring to the introduction to the US of liposuction. What she fails to mention is the context - how many procedures were performed in this period? Is that 20 deaths out of 200 procedures? 2400? 24000? It's inconsistencies such as these which demean the author's credibility somewhat.

Having said that, the book does highlight the very unhealthy obsession with weight-loss that is now pandemic. Interestingly (to me at least), the book was written only a year before the diet drugs Redux and Pondimin were taken off the market, after being found to cause significant heart valve damage (along with PPH) - I would be very interested to see an updated issue of the book, if only to see if this is addressed adequately.

Do try to obtain a copy though - it's informative for the most, and it's an important book.