No Fat Chicks: How Big Business Profits Making Women Hate Their Bodies-How to Fight Back

by Terry Poulton

A journalist reveals how women are led to desire an impossibly thin body by the greed of the fashion, cosmetic, and diet industries that are only interested in their own bottom line.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Health

273 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poulton is awesome. I respect her ability to clearly reveal the "billion dollar brainwash" as the ugly, transparent, sad, and incomprehensibly successful ploy that is. However, the book is so much a fusion of her (perfectly reasonable) personal outrage and her thorough research, that it is sometimes hard to separate fact from angry sarcasm. And while her personal experience serves as a compelling lens through which to view the evil skinny=healthy=beautiful=rich=happy myth, it also leads her to overlook the intersections of fatphobia with other types of systematic oppression to the point where she simplifies racism and poverty and misogyny to suggest that body-hate is the only type of discrimination left for us to tackle.

I'm on the search now for current material about body-acceptance that is more inclusive with a clearer distinction between narrative and fact-based research. Suggestions?

[tamarack · Rating 3 out of 5]

poulton is a journalist whose career was fucked over by her weight and seeming inability to conform to a particular code of beauty-body conduct. as someone who identifies with the endless self-torment of feeling and/or fearing fat, this book gave me a lot of good info. no fat chicks sheds light on the absurdity of fat-phobic and fat-hating culture. my only real let-down with this book is poulton's inability to expand her critique beyond a very narrow focus: she argues primarily for acceptance of fat "people"(primarily white women) by the dominant culture. it is really a shame that she cannot turn it around to realise that the dominant culture is bullshit, and instead of throwing our lot in with those who would oppress us, we should recognise where truer allies are to be found. poulton does not leave behind the eyes of a upward-clawing, white, north american affluent for one minute. i kind of recognised the analytical shortcomings and tried to get on with the book.
despite limitations i think this is a rad read: a solid starter for examining our prejudices against body types. it blows me away what some people will do to keep themselves on top and keep others down. it was amazing to finally get it through my thick skull that bodies are not endlessly mailable, and fat is normal. heck, skinny peeps should give more respect: we could kick their asses!

[Cyberpope · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellently well-thought-out expose of how big business conspires to turn a created collective feeling of low self esteem into billions of dollars a year of profits. . .
e.g. Why don't we EVER see a picture of a normal(curvaceous) woman on ANY magazine cover? Because they will be fined $100,000,000+ in lost ad revenue if they dare -- & all ad execs KNOW this, so they play ball very carefully, presenting ONLY the approved image types. . .

Sick!

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

In American society women who are overweight are scorned and debased. To men they are invisible. And corporate America takes billions of our dollars "encouraging" us to buy their products so we can buy the illusion of beauty. Excellent book written by a large woman who has been through it all and refuses to accept it any longer!

[Em · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book. It is somewhat dated now (1990s) but sadly, still relevant. It was pretty infuriating and depressing up until the last chapter, but I guess that's the point.

[Jean Oram · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprising and educational. Advertisers suck.