Well, I finished the book. I thought it was good, mostly, besides the objections I mentioned in the last post. On the whole, a lot of what Shanker is saying applies no matter what. It's not too much to ask that your friends and family treat you with respect. And clothes? Yes, please. I also thought that her chapter on dating was timely and well-written. On the whole, the book was well-written.
But at the end, I was left with the vague sense that she was somehow contradicting herself. And in some parts, she acknowledged the contradiction--the section about foundation garments, for instance. She's vehementy against girdles and full-body slimming suits and so on, until later in the book, where she talks about going to the Oscars and how wonderful full-armor foundation garments are. Um. Right.
It left me unsatisfied, I guess, which left me sadder than I can tell you. To me, it wasn't a fat-acceptence manifesto so much as a "Wendy Shanker acceptance manifesto." Like, love me! worship me! I'm cute! I'm great! *pause* And Other Fat Girls are great too! All I know is that Shanker uses all kinds of studies and anecdotal evidence to point out that maybe fat isn't so bad, and I still felt like it was forced. Maybe I'm reading it wrong. I'm not sure.
Nonetheless, it was a very disappointing read.
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