Phew. My book on fatphobia, Unshrinking, has been out in the world for just over a week now, and it’s been a wild—and intermittently bumpy—ride. I thought I’d share a little round-up of what I’ve been up to for those of you who are interested, and a few thoughts about how things are going so far.
Some Favorite Opinion Pieces
The Five Words that Helped Me Accept my Body (for Time)
Society Preaches Kindness – Unless You’re Fat. Why is Fatphobia Still on the Rise? (for The Guardian)
And, for those of you haven’t seen it yet, this piece in The Cut where I laid my soul bare
Some Favorite Reviews
The Tragedy of Fatphobia in Kate Manne’s Unshrinking, by Regan Penaluna
The Body and Its Denizen: On Kate Manne’s “Unshrinking,” by Emmeline Clein
Also nice to see this “Briefly Noted” on the book in The New Yorker
Some Favorite Recent Conversations
Listen at Burnt Toast, with Virginia Sole-Smith
Listen at Sorry Not Sorry, with Alyssa Milano
Watch via YouTube at FAN, with Roxane Gay
Read at Salon, with Amanda Marcotte
More to come soon, when I do a full podcast and radio round-up (noting my evolution from a person who says “you know” way too much to a person who says “so” way too much). And the in-person events last week, with Adrienne Bitar at Buffalo Street Books, Amanda Recupero for eCornell (which you can catch on YouTube here), and Holly Jones at 171 Cedar Arts Center, were incredible. Some snaps:
Photo by Bethany Hammond, owner of Card Carrying Books and Gifts, who co-hosted with 171 Cedar Arts Center
Photo by Jennifer Sekella
Photo courtesy of Buffalo Street Books
Photo courtesy of Emily Ho, on Instagram
Already, in-person and via email, I’ve been floored by your stories about fatphobia and its impact. I’ll write about them—anonymously and with permission of course—soon.
Some Low Lights
Deciding to abort a radio interview (fortunately not live) when the host talked not only about the “obesity pandemic,” but singled out “super morbidly obese” people who need mobility aids (the horror!) and were therefore clearly both pitiable and responsible for their ignominy. Interestingly, this horribly fatphobic and ableist interview was eerily similar to—perhaps an attempt to replicate—another for an entirely different outlet which the fabulous Dr. Asher Larmie (aka “The Fat Doctor”) generously agreed to after I declined it. (We both independently regretted engaging in what felt like a bad-faith exercise in perpetuating weight stigma.) Or maybe fatphobes are just that mired in the same few noxious thought-terminating clichés and stereotypes.
Being asked by a freelance journalist as their opening question whether I’d “change my ways” if I developed diabetes. Hello, we just met? Are you my doctor? If so, can I fire you?
Being asked by the same person what I think when I see a very fat person. Um, hi? I like your shoes?
Being subject to speculation on Twitter by another philosopher that I wasn’t unhappy because of fatphobia in my early twenties; I was unhappy because I was “promiscuous” and my essentially feminine nature was crying out for some good old-fashioned patriarchal norms and expectations. If only I had thought about those once or twice this past decade!
Perpetual anxiety that the book is not selling enough copies.
So, it’s a lot to process. I am SO grateful for your incredible support, readers, and for those of you who’ve pre-ordered or ordered, and left reviews on Amazon (where you can review it regardless of where you bought it from) and goodreads (ditto). Please consider doing so now if you’d like to support me and haven’t already! Social media posts are also deeply appreciated. These next few weeks will be so important for this book, and I feel particularly vulnerable to brigading and one-star reviews given the book’s predictable unpopularity in right-wing media outlets.
Upcoming Events
Here’s a little reminder of some of the in-person book events coming up next week. I’d so love to see you there:
Monday January 22, 2023
Harvard Book Store, with Sally Haslanger
7pm ET, Cambridge, MA
Wednesday January 24, 2023
Montclair Public Library, with Kate Tuttle
6.30pm ET, Montclair, NJ
Friday January 26, 2023
Community Bookstore, with Virginia Sole-Smith
7pm ET, Brooklyn, NY
Saturday January 27, 2023
Politics and Prose Bookstore, with Emily Esfahani Smith
3pm ET, Washington, DC
Friends, if you’re now dipping into Unshrinking, is there anything it brought up for you or made you want to share with me? And back to your regularly scheduled posts—with actual thoughts—soon.
Thank you for sharing both the highs and lows. We're cheering for you. This is a long, hard, important fight. Your negative experiences (which I wish you didn't have) are such a sad reminder of how much work there is to do.
I finished Unshrinking in 2 sittings. It was so wonderful and will be declaring it my next book club read and having my parents/partner/friends/random acquaintances read it. Thank you so much for putting this into the world. It simultaneously made me feel seen and opened my eyes.