Book Addiction

Fat is a Feminist Issue by Susie Orbach

Summary - Fat is not about food.  Fat is about protection, mothering, sex, strength, assertion and love.  Fat is a response to the way you are seen by your husband, your mother, your boss, and yourself.  You can change that response by learning the difference between “mouth hunger” and “stomach hunger”, by seeing weight loss as a good thing rather than a punishment, and by realizing that food is not your enemy.  Author Orbach says that most women respond to her program by maintaining or even gaining weight at first, as they learn to accept and like themselves - that’s okay.  And that’s just the beginning of this astonishingly effective new approach to weight loss through satisfaction.

My thoughts -

I did not read this book because I am a compulsive eater, or because I think I am fat, or because I have any other issue with food.  I read this book because I am a feminst, and I think it is important for me to expose myself to any and all feminist literature I can find, even when on the surface I don’t think it’ll apply to me.  Except in this case, I found it sort of did apply to me, indirectly, simply because I am a woman trying to get by unscathed by our anti-woman culture.  Orbach’s thesis is that having a weight problem and/or a compulsive eating problem is a response to the culture and social structure in which women are placed.  And even though the book was first published in 1978, I sadly found myself agreeing with pretty much all of what she had to say, even now 30 years later.  Much of the support she used for her thesis is standard feminist thinking, taken for granted by women in today’s day and age, but surprisingly it does still apply.  Just because women today know they are basically second class citizens does not change the fact that it is still true, and that being second class citizens still affects every single decision we make in the world - including what we eat, how much we eat, how we eat it, and when we eat it.  Orbach also spent a chapter drawing parallels between compulsive overeating and anorexia nervosa - while many people would argue that these are two separate, completely opposite disorders that have nothing in common, Orbach argues that they are two sides of the same coin.  Both are a response to the culture that women live in, with one being a rejection of that culture and the other being an overexaggeration and obsession with that culture.  I’d really recomend reading this book if you are fat, a feminist, both, or neither.  It is smart and enlightening and another one of those feminist pieces that you hope will not be necessary in today’s world, but unfortunately it is, so it’s worth reading. 

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

Summary:  Everyone frets about the nutritional implications of excessive dining at America’s fast-food emporia, but few grasp the significance of how fast-food restaurants have fundamentally changed the way Americans eat. Schlosser documents the effects of fast food on America’s economy, its youth culture, and allied industries, such as meatpacking, that serve this vast food production empire. Starting with a young woman who makes minimum wage working at a Colorado fast-food restaurant, Schlosser relates the oft-told story of Ray Kroc’s founding of McDonald’s. The author also tells about the development of the franchise method of business ownership and the health and nutrition implications of fast-food consumption. In a striking chapter, Schlosser gives a glimpse into the little-known world of chemically engineered flavorings, both natural and artificial. The coming together of so many diverse social, scientific, and economic trends in a single industry makes this book a relevant, compelling read and a cautionary tale of the many risks generated by this ubiquitous industry.

My thoughts -

I decided to read this because I was completely enthralled with Morgan Spurlock’s movie Supersize Me.   I expected Schlosser’s take on the fast food industry to be a lot like Spurlock’s movie; mostly about how fast food makes you unhealthy, fat, creates heart attacks and high cholesteral and all that.  What I didn’t expect was what I got: an honest to goodness examination of the history of the fast food industry and its impact on almost everything you can imagine in the world today, from socialization of our children to the business side of it to the way animals are treated and taken care of at the meatpacking plants.  I learned so much from this book and I was not bored one bit.  Reading this book has made me take a second glance at what types of food I’m eating, where it is coming from, and who (or what) has suffered to create what I am about to eat.  I haven’t become a vegetarian (yet) but I definitely think more carefully about what I put in my mouth having read the book.  I really, really loved it and would highly recommend reading it.

Rating: 10/10