Reading Project: Fat is a Feminist Issue

I pre­vi­ously men­tioned that I would be writ­ing about “Fat is a Fem­i­nist Issue” by Susie Orbach. When I read this book nearly 25 years ago, it was a life-changing expe­ri­ence. I have gone back and read parts of it from time to time over the years, but decided that it is time to re-read it in its entirety and write about it here, so I pur­chased the Jan­u­ary 2006 revised edi­tion. Orig­i­nally, pub­lished in 1978, the book has been updated and reis­sued numer­ous times.

I invite you to read with me and join in a dis­cus­sion of the book.

Each Sun­day, I will write about suc­ces­sive sec­tions of the book. I am not break­ing it into chap­ters because there are only seven and each is packed with so much infor­ma­tion that I think the dis­cus­sion should be focused upon smaller segments.

This Sun­day, I will pub­lish an arti­cle based upon Orbach’s Pref­ace and Intro­duc­tion which explain her the­sis, the book’s gen­e­sis, and what has tran­spired in the years since its ini­tial pub­li­ca­tion dur­ing the Women’s Movement.

If you would like to par­tic­i­pate, all you need to do is obtain a copy of the book which is inex­pen­sive and read­ily avail­able in paper­back — any edi­tion is fine because the only change is the update offered at the begin­ning. Then drop by this Sun­day, read my intro­duc­tory arti­cle, and join in the dis­cus­sion. I will write about the first chap­ter next Sun­day, Octo­ber 21, 2007, which will allow time for those of you who wish to obtain a copy to do so.

It is not nec­es­sary that you read the sec­tions of the book that I am going to be writ­ing about by a spe­cific date. My arti­cles will remain here so that you can join the dis­cus­sion at any time, read­ing and par­tic­i­pat­ing in the con­ver­sa­tion as your own time con­straints allow.

If you strug­gle with com­pul­sive eat­ing and have spent years try­ing to fig­ure out why, this book holds the answers. Orbach writes hon­estly and with a respect for women that is, in my opin­ion, miss­ing from cacoph­o­nous dis­cus­sion of diet­ing tak­ing place every day and from every con­ceiv­able media source in this coun­try. If you are seri­ous about under­stand­ing why you have found it so hard to break old behav­ioral and eat­ing pat­terns, read­ing this book might be a life-altering expe­ri­ence for you, too.

Tech­no­rati Tags: Fat is a Fem­i­nist Issue, Fem­i­nism, Weight Issues, Weight Man­age­ment

On the Same Topic:

• Read­ing Project: Fat is a Fem­i­nist Issue (Week One)
• The One Lie My Mother Told Me (Part Two)
• I Hate My Clothes
• Time to Shop
• Time to Clean Out the Closet — Round 1