Virgie Tovar

I enjoyed the different perspectives that this book had to offer. The women had very different experiences with their weight throughout their lives. Some gave messages of positivity, some admitted they still struggle with accepting their weight. But the overall message of this book was to love yourself and your body, no matter your size or shape. We do live in a society that prizes a very specific body shape and to be outside that "norm" can be very difficult for many people. I think many of show more us struggle to accept our body type and this book was a great start as far as inspiration and assistance with loving what you've got. show less

I kept putting this book down to go look up the things the essayists were talking about, that's how good and helpful this book is. It's mind-blowing, even if you're aware of fat activism already, when you really take the plunge and start reading unapologetic fats sharing stories like yours and talking about how they started down their path of liberation. Highly recommended.

Very useful for my self-esteem as a fat girl. However, being fierce, aggressive and sensual is just not what I do (size or no size), and the book barely explores the paths of quiet girls to self-acceptance.

I heard of this person a few years ago in a discussion about Health at Every Size, and all her pictures looked like her wardrobe had been chosen by a half-blind toddler who'd been turned loose in a Goodwill. A few years later, I hear she published a book. Being the rubbernecker I am, I just HAD to have a look.

The intro is depressing as hell. As a girl, the author liked to get home, strip down naked and run into the kitchen (where her grandma was working) and jiggle her body, and oh how she show more loved all the jiggling. Her thighs and belly and cheeks and chin would wobble. She even goes to compare this to the undulations of water in the bathtub or the pool. She loved how her body could do these incredible things.

Um, what? The fact that your body is so fat that it jiggles that much is incredible? What? (Also, shame on her guardians for letting a child get that fat! This goes beyond baby fat)

I had to stop for a second and process that. It sounds so insane I was almost sure it was made up, but then having seen various insane things being said by HAES advocates, I can now believe this kind of thing.

Mind you, that was just the introduction. And introductions usually give you a good idea of what is in the rest of the book. The introduction showed me a high level of delusion, and the rest of the book is pretty much the same.

She also rails against the patriarchy as you'd expect of a book that was published by... dun dun dun dun... Feminist Press. No, seriously, that's what it says in the copyright information. Not only that, but Feminist Press is a university press.

Which is another big red flag. Now, there's nothing wrong with college publishers in themselves, because that's a big venue for scholars/students to share their papers and work and all that jazz. But it's pseudo-feminist ramblings like this book that bring down the credibility of said publishers.

There are chapters called 'Bros show less