This is an excellent point of entry if you are not familiar with research in the area of fat studies. The essays cover a great breadth of topics relevant to many traditional academic disciplines (medicine, public health, history, rhetoric, political science/sociology/anthropology, education, literature, etc). Although the chapters are brief, they provide citations to previous work that you can easily track down if you want to explore any particular topic in greater depth. Some of the essays serve primarily as literature reviews, while others seek to make research contributions of their own. Methodologically, the essays either used or cited research involving a wide range of methods from medical/health science, social science (qualitative, quantitative, and experimental), and the humanities (Foucaultian analysis, queer theory, feminist theory, critical race theory, critiques of neoliberalism, etc.). I am particularly interested in the topics of bodies and imagination, both of which were themes of several of the essays. Overall, this volume falls squarely into the tradition of socially conscious academic research that performs both a scholarly and activist function. As always in an edited volume, some of the chapters are stronger than others. Which ones you assess to be the better ones will likely depend on the perspective you're coming from.
Some potential readers may wish to take note that this is primarily an academic volume, although there are also several chapters written by activists and other practitioners (e.g. people in the fat burlesque and fat exercise movements). While it is clear to me that most of the authors have a serious attempt to write in a relatively accessible fashion, the primary audience is other academic researchers. I think college-educated adults or even college students should be capable of reading at least many of the chapters in this book without too much difficulty, although you may want to look at some of the popular books on this topic if you are not looking for academic research. I will say that Deb Burgard's essay on Heath At Any Size is very important reading for everyone, especially for healthcare providers and fat people who wish to advocate for themselves in medical contexts, even though it uses some technical language language (none of which I think is too difficult to follow, but YMMV).
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Solid starting point for researchers interested in fat studies that may be of value for some non-academic readers as well
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 29, 2015Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 31, 2010
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 21, 2011
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 19, 2010
