In recounting the history of America’s obsession with thinness, Taffy Brodesser-Akner explores her own struggles with weight loss and the weight loss industry. She relates how “diet” has become a four-letter word, out in favor of a new form of personal imprisonment — “eating clean,” “getting fit, and “being strong” — none of which offer […]
Fat
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Quotes
Roxane Gay on the Final Frontier: Acceptance for Every Female Body
Roxane Gay on her new memoir and on gaining acceptance for the female body in every shape and size.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Roxane Gay’s New Memoir About Her Weight May Be Her Most Feminist—and Revealing—Act Yet
Marisa Meltzer profiles Roxane Gay as the prolific author prepares to go on tour to support Hunger, a book she calls “by far the hardest book I’ve ever had to write.” In it, Gay reflects on what it’s like to live in a world that does not accommodate her body and how she “turned to […]
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Quotes, Unapologetic Women
A Fat Body and a Fat Mind: On Taking Up Space, Unapologetically
Carmen Maria Machado’s stunning essay in Guernica on the power of women who take up space is an important read for people of any size.
Posted inNonfiction, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, read stories by Mark MacKinnon, Rachel Cusk, Carmen Maria Machado, Suketu Mehta, and an excerpt from Bill Hayes.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Quotes
Eating In Public Is a Spectator Sport When You’re Fat
After navigating a lifetime of being fat (and ashamed) in the US, Jonatha Kottler moved to the Netherlands and found a whole new universe of exclusion.
Posted inDiscussions, Nonfiction, Quotes, Reading List
On Being Fat
Sara Benincasa’s essay “Why Am I So Fat?” was one of our top five reads last week, and with good reason — it was honest and cutting in all the right ways. It was brash and unapologetic and funny as hell (and also suggests that perhaps Fader was slightly premature in declaring, earlier this year, that […]