Status
Available
Publication
Tarcher (2005), 256 pages
Description
"Enlisting thirteen anthropologists and one fat activist, editors and anthropologists Don Kulick and Anne Meneley have produced an unconventional and unprecedented examination of fat as a concept, a substance, and a lifestyle. Edgy and non-judgmental, Fat steers the conversation away from the heavily trodden ground of health, cosmetic concerns, and cheap jokes, and moves it in a completely different direction, dissecting familiar institutions like Starbucks, Spam, pornography, medicine, religion, high school, and more - as well as providing glimpses into less familiar cultures where fat is venerated, and even considered something to cherish and protect."--BOOK JACKET.
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User reviews
LibraryThing member cestovatela
Fat isn't a book to gobble up all at once. It's the kind of book you ought to read slowly, giving your brain time to savor and digest the new ideas. As its title suggests, the book is a collection of essays examining what "fat" means around the world. It investigates not only different geographic
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areas but also different subcultures, like gay fat fetishists and the pornography of extreme obesity. In so doing, it dissects where our culture's fat fears originate from as well as the hypocrisy behind them. Much more than a feel-good treatise on body acceptance, the book examines the issue of size from angles you likely haven't considered before, like the hypocrisy of a culture that idolizes over-consumption of just about everything...except food. Most fascinating is a chapter devoted to pishtacos, Bolivian vampires that suck the fat from the bodies of unsuspecting victims. Not only is the analysis intriguing, most of it is written in an engaging, readable way. The ideas do get a little repetitive after awhile which is why it's not a good choice for your main reading book. In spite of the repetition, I was glad to have finished the whole thing; each piece contributed a new idea, or made me see an old one in a new light. Show Less
LibraryThing member wester
As much as this book tries to show many different sides of fat, it suffers from the conflation of fat (the substance) to fat (the body type). This conflation may be ubiquitous in our culture, but that doesn't stop it from being probably wrong, and a more skeptical attitude towards this particular
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presupposition would have greatly improved the book. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
8.3 inches
ISBN
1585423866 / 9781585423866