Skinny Bitch

I picked this up off the library shelf because I had heard that it was a pretty funny, informative read. I found it to be wrong on both counts. If I had known about it's "Vegan or Bust" attitude towards nutrition (and fear-mongering) I probably wouldn't have bothered.

This book isn't funny. If anything it only perpetuates woman-on-woman hate and self loathing for one's body. If you want to be skinny, you have to really hate yourself and be willing to no longer enjoy eating food at all, ever again.

They actually suggest holding off eating until you are absolutely ravenous. Don't eat breakfast until you can no longer stand it, and don't eat lunch until you are insane with hunger. How is that healthy?

O that's right. THIS BOOK IS WRITTEN BY show more MODELS.

When a book suggests "Donate Blood. You can save a life and lose weight at the same time" (pg. 182) something is wrong. Very, very wrong. show less

"Don’t be a cheap asshole. Yeah, yeah, yeah, organic produce is usually more expensive than conventional produce. But we spend countless dollars on clothes, jewelry, manicures, magazines, rent or mortgages, car payments and other bullshit. Surely our health and our bodies (we only get one body) are more important than anything else in our lives."

The authors make the point in the same paragraph that perhaps the costs will even out because the more you prepare your own meals and snacks, the less money you spend on costly eating out or impulse food shopping.

But this passage above, more than anything else, distills why many bristle at health food vegans. Veganism as practiced in America can be one of the most elitist diets ever. If one show more eschews animal products and animal cruelty in all forms, everything from food to shampoo to laundry detergent becomes more expensive. The vegan refusal to admit this troubles me.

You see, like many of our peers, Mr. Everything and I are precariously middle-class. I mean, I own a home, we have two cars, one of which is very old, and we can afford for me to spend money on books. We get to run the air conditioner in the hot, Texas summers. Compared to 90% of the world, we are blessed and privileged. But I don’t spend countless dollars on manicures. I’ve never had one, in fact. I wear no jewelry. I use an old computer. My purse is ten-years-old. And I find a vegan diet prohibitively expensive during the winter when the farmers markets are no longer open out here in the ‘burbs. I find vegan, organic products as a whole to be quite a bit more expensive than their non-vegan, non-organic counterparts. So to drill this idea down to its core – I am a privileged person economically and even I find the vegan lifestyle dear economically.

Of course, on paper, many vegans also adopt a less consumer-driven lifestyle and don’t have closets filled with leather shoes, silk blouses, wool coats. But reducing consumer spending can only get you so far, meaning one has to be purchasing manicures, jewelry, and clothes to the extent that such dollars can be reallocated to purchasing organic and vegan foods. I would venture that millions of Americans don’t spend money on frivolities. They are not out buying french pedicures and the latest shoe style favored by celebutantes. They don’t have the money to redirect to healthier food options and to callously suggest that they do makes it hard to make a case for veganism as a truly sustainable way of eating for everyone, not just us reasonably comfortable white chicks who live within 25 miles of a Whole Foods and a regular farmer’s market. Read my entire review here: http://ireadeverything.com/skinny-bitch-by-rory-freedman-and-kim-barnouin show less

I was stranded at an airport during a three hour layover with nothing to read when I found this book. I admit, I only checked it out because of the name. I tend to avoid self-help books of any kind for the most part, especially diet books, but the name just made me laugh. After flipping through a few chapters and noticing the book is focused primarily on the health benefits of veganism and eating organic, I found myself very interested in the book as that is my lifestyle.

The book is a quick read and it's written in a sarcastic manner that just had me laughing out loud quite a bit. However, the book was a bit more biased than I would have liked. Freedman and Barnounin are supporters of PETA, an organization that, despite my stance on show more animal rights, I really dislike. They quote PETA a lot so maybe I'm biased in that respect. They also play on the emotional aspects of slaughterhouses and factory farms. Yes, they're horrible. I won't argue that. But that's not what the title of the book led me to believe I'd be reading about.

After reading several chapters on the crimes committed against animals, Freedman and Barnounin then went on a rant about the government and how they're lying about everything we're eating. I don't understand how they could even know this since they have no way of actually monitering what the government does or does not do and then comparing it to what they're telling us. I'm sure there are companies who are less than honest, but there's no way for an average person to get proof of that (is there?) and the blatant accusations made me a little uncomfortable.

So in short, the book is one giant rant against the government and one giant promo towards animal rights. There are a few interesting facts in the book but I would only recommend reading this if you're really interested in animal rights and support PETA (and remember, this is coming from a vegan). show less

I'm not going to lie -- I love this book. It doesn't beat around any bushes. I read it because I had heard it advocated vegan eating habits, and I was cracked up by the honesty of the authors' writing style. So many books about diet and food are wishy-washy, but this one tells people exactly what they don't want to hear -- that (1) you shouldn't put crap that is not food into your body, and (2) if it's your ultimate goal, being skinny takes tons of self-discipline and depravation of what you may be used to. I wouldn't recommend this to young girls as it may give them an unhealthy view, but if you're a well-adjusted grownup this book is a wonderful mix of inspiring, bitchy, and - yes - empowering.

This book was generally a load of crap. I feel absolutely cheated in reading this book.

I thought that this book was going to be a means of feeling empowered about food and body image. I thought it was going to be a guide to eating like all those "skinny bitches" many of us females see out there all the time. You know, the ones who pick listlessly at their grilled salmon and mixed greens while we chomp voraciously into our hamburgers? I wanted an insight into the way in which "skinny bitches" lead their lives and approach food, diet and exercise, since I think being skinny is more about mindset and behavior than necessarily about calorie intake or fat grams.

Instead, I got a 198 page rant, the main tagline of which was "Go Vegan, or else show more you will be fat and unhealthy forever." What utter tripe. I think the girls brought up some interesting (and horrifying) points about the meat packing industry and the danger of processed foods that many people consume on a daily basis, but I think it is manipulative (and ridiculous) to push the idea that the sole means of becoming healthy is by becoming vegan.

Furthermore, the girls barely discuss exercise and other means of getting healthy and their "motivational" language was insulting in the extreme. The idea of becoming a "skinny bitch" and adopting an in your face tone is one thing, but it is quite another to call you reader a "fat pig." Who do they think they are?

These girls come across as vapid, "Hollywood" dumb bitches who toss around some wikipedia level research in an attempt to push their ideas on the reader and adopt a superior, self righteous, holier than thou tone throughout. Only in the last pages do these authors try to whitewash their message with "love yourself" and "care about yourself" but at that point it's too late for me to feel anything but disgust with these stupid girls. show less

I picked this book for a friend, and read through it while I was waiting to see her. It is, in a word, terrible.

First off, it is vegan propaganda in the guise of a self help book. If you are vegan or plan on becoming vegan and want a book about it, there are much better books out there that don't hide their true intentions.

The bigger problem with this book is that the authors had no business writing it in the first place. Neither of them is qualified to give nutritional advice, and much of their advice is flat out wrong. One of the authors is a former modeling agent; the other is a former model with a degree in nutrition from an unaccredited correspondence school.

If you want a poorly researched treatise on the benefits of becoming vegan show more written by foul mouthed models, then buy this book. If you want a book that offers more than insults and a fad diet, keep looking. show less

This book would be a lot better if it wasn't doing such things as using PETA for a citation in its research. I'm all about eating vegan, but this book adds such a negative vibe to something that people should want to do on their own, for their own health and/or conscience, that I wouldn't recommend it to people simply based on its lack of sensitivity to the reality of what it is like to exist in the world of highly processed, highly marketed chemical-laced food. I'd say that this book is more of a catalyst for one to become an orthorexic or lead to some other disordered eating/thinking problem than it will lead people on the path to eating and living well.