{"id":1789799,"date":"2026-02-24T11:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1789799"},"modified":"2026-02-24T11:55:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:55:00","slug":"want-to-unlearn-fatphobia-read-these-6-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1789799","title":{"rendered":"Want to unlearn fatphobia? Read these 6 books"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/928\/64-0-928-618\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/8\/1438511.jpeg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article class=\"main-article standard \">\n<div class=\"article-main-content article-wrapper has-media-but-its-an-image\" data-status=\"loaded\" data-primary-article=\"true\" data-url=\"\/beauty\/article\/69721\/1\/fatphobia-fat-liberation-reading-list-books\" data-article-id=\"69721\">\n<header class=\"article-header has-landscape-image no-media\">\n<div class=\"wrapper dg-max-width\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<figure class=\"main-img has-figcaption\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.78\" data-template=\"Standard Article\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Real Women Have Curves, 2002 (Film Still)\" class=\"img\" height=\"619\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1100\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/8\/1438511.jpeg\" width=\"1100\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"inner\"><span class=\"credit\">Real Women Have Curves, 2002 <span class=\"nowrap\">(Film Still)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"meta\">\n<div class=\"inner\"><time datetime=\"2026-02-24T11:55:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"24 February 2026\"><span class=\"month\">February<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"24\">24,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"titles\">\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical - beauty\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\">Beauty<\/a><br \/>\n\/<br \/>\n<a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty-feature\">Beauty Feature<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"standard-tag-container\"><a class=\"standard-category\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\">Beauty<\/a> \/<br \/>\n<a class=\"standard-series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty-feature\">Beauty Feature<\/a><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"title\"><span>Want to unlearn fatphobia? Read these <span class=\"nowrap\">6 books<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"standfirst\">\n<h2>As Ozempic and other weight loss drugs become normalised, so too does renewed pressure to be thin \u2013 here\u2019s a reading list to <span class=\"nowrap\">resist it<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-02-24T11:55:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"24 February 2026\"><span class=\"month\">February<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"24\">24,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-02-24T11:55:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"24 February 2026\"><span class=\"month\">February<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"24\">24,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"providers\">\n<div class=\"contributors\"><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Text\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Text<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/HalimaJibril\">Halima Jibril<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article-body-container\">\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>We all know that we live in a deeply\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/fatphobia\">fatphobic<\/a> society. Netflix&#8217;s recent <\/span><em><span>America\u2019s Next Top Model<\/span><\/em><span> documentary took us back to the early 2000s when it was considered appropriate to scold young, impressionable women for not having perfectly flat stomachs, with Tyra Banks telling one of the already very thin contestants that she should \u201cwatch what she eats\u201d. It\u2019s not an overstatement to say that body positivity didn\u2019t really exist in the 2000s. But in the 2010s, we witnessed what I would now describe as a flawed but radical movement towards body positivity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This movement was not perfect, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/body-positivity-2010-2019-movement\/\">Lindsay King-Miller wrote for <\/a><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/body-positivity-2010-2019-movement\/\"><em><span>Bitch<\/span><\/em><\/a><span> in 2014: \u201cToday\u2019s body positivity focuses too much on affirming beauty and not enough on deconstructing its necessity.\u201d But compared to how far we have regressed, the 2010s starts to look like a lost haven. Today, it has become normalised to refer to oneself or others as a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@parismwendwa\/video\/7603913160327712013?_r=1&amp;_t=ZN-94AGQfZDNAc\">big back<\/a>\u201d \u2013 a comment often made when a person thinks they\u2019ve overeaten or wants to eat unhealthily \u2013 and to see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\/article\/66896\/1\/plus-size-celebrities-lose-weight-ozempic-lizzo-adele-remi-bader-body-posivity\">former curve models and actresses become thinner and thinner<\/a>. Speaking to a wider cultural saturation, there were several advertisements about GLP-1 medicines for weight loss and diabetes at the recent Super Bowl. The most alarming featured tennis legend Serena Williams, who stated that she is \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DUgLtdyiVhP\/\">healthier on Ro<\/a>\u201d, the membership-based telehealth platform that offers access to GLP-1.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Alongside the normalisation of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/ozempic\">Ozempic<\/a> and other weight loss drugs, we are witnessing the resurgence of fatphobia in both overt and covert ways, and we all have a responsibility to reject this. If you are also sick of our deeply fatphobic society and want to unlearn your own bias and challenge others, we\u2019ve compiled a short reading list about fatness, body image, eating disorders and food.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><em>TELL ME HOW YOU EAT: POWER AND THE WILL TO LIVE, <\/em>AMBER HUSAIN<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Today we are encouraged to take weight loss pills and injections that make us uninterested in food. But even before GLP-1s, we were already living in a world, as Amber Husain argues in her new book, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\/article\/69515\/1\/amber-husain-author-interview-tell-me-how-you-eat-book-review-eating-disorders\"><em><span>Tell Me How You Eat Power and the Will to Live<\/span><\/em><\/a><span>, that made eating easy for some and hard for others. Husain challenges our normative understanding of eating disorders and highlights the ways that social inequalities makes us sick and disinterested in eating, but my favourite part of the book is when Husain writes about food and its erotic and generative potential. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>She writes about a scene from Audre Lorde\u2019s book <\/span><em><span>Zami: A New Spelling of My Name<\/span><\/em><span>, where she attended a party held by Black lesbians: \u201cHere the liquor flows viscous and heavy: gin, bourbon, scotch and various mixers stand opened, the bar less dotted than swamped with delicacies of all descriptions. Most important, there is a platter of fried chicken wings, a pan of potato-\u200b\u00ad\u200b\u00adand-\u200b\u00adegg salad dressed with vinegar, and a huge central platter of beef arranged over a pan of cracked ice. The room is \u2018alive and pulsing with loud music\u2019.\u201d If you have complicated feelings around food and are looking for possible answers, this is the book for you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><em>DEAD WEIGHT: ESSAYS ON HUNGER AND HARM,<\/em> EMMELINE CLEIN\u00a0<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Husain and Clein\u2019s books both speak to one another. <\/span><em><span>Dead Weight <\/span><\/em><span>challenges dominant narratives around dieting and fatness, with Clein arguing that the real danger might not be fatness itself, but the constant cycle of dieting. She points to research showing that many studies linking fatness to poor health fail to account for confounding variables, most notably the prevalence of weight cycling among people categorised as \u201cobese\u201d. A 2019 study from Columbia University, for example, found that women with a history of \u201cyo-yo\u201d dieting had more cardiovascular risk factors than those who maintained a consistent weight, regardless of whether that weight was considered \u201chealthy\u201d. Clein concludes that much of what\u2019s reported as data on the dangers of fatness may, in fact, reflect the harms of <\/span><em><span>chronic dieting<\/span><\/em><span>. It is an eye-opening read.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><em>FAT SWIM<\/em>, EMMA COPLEY EISENBERG<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span><em>Fat Swim<\/em> is yet to be released, but it is one of my most anticipated reads for 2026. Unlike the other books on this list, it is the only fiction novel \u2013 a collection of linked stories about different fat people which explores the contradictions, joys and violence of the modern world. The blurb states that: \u201cFor better or for worse, these stories counsel, none of us can leave our bodies behind: they remind us what it is to be alive.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><em>BELLY OF THE BEAST: THE POLITICS OF ANTI-FATNESS AS ANTI-BLACKNESS,<\/em> DA&#8217;SHAUN L HARRISON<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><em><span>Belly Of The Beast: The Politics Of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span>by Da\u2019shaun L Harrison is an essential read for understanding the connection between anti-fatness and racism. The fat, Black, disabled and non-binary writer highlights the state-sanctioned murders of fat Black people, the ways anti-fatness and anti-blackness show up in everyday life, and more. The book tackles many topics, from desirability politics to attempts to challenge our cultural understanding of fatness as bad.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><em><span>HUNGER: A MEMOIR OF (MY) BODY BY ROXANE GAY<\/span><\/em><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Roxane Gay is one of my favourite writers. She\u2019s not the kind of writer to avoid complication \u2013 she sees it and runs straight towards it, as you can see in her 2017 book <\/span><em><span>Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span>She is not interested in making anyone feel better or good about <\/span><em><span>their<\/span><\/em><span> bodies, because this is her story. It\u2019s a sad and challenging read, where Gay writes about being raped at the age of 12 by her boyfriend and several of his friends, and how this experience has impacted her relationship with her body and with food. Gaye explicitly responds to the world\u2019s disgust with her body type and much more.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span><em>THE BODY IS NOT AN APOLOGY<\/em> BY SONYA RENEE TAYLOR<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Rather than parroting liberal feminist self-help rhetoric around loving oneself and one\u2019s body, <\/span><em><span>The Body Is Not An Apology<\/span><\/em><span> by Sonya Renee Taylor highlights how radical self-love cannot exist without social justice. The book highlights how we exist within a system that profits from making us hate our bodies and writes about how we combat this terror. <\/span><em><span>The Body Is Not An Apology<\/span><\/em><span> is now in its second edition and shows how racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and fatphobia are all interconnected.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>THE FAT LIBERATION ARCHIVE\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p>Created by Dr Carlie Pendleton, the <a href=\"https:\/\/fatlibarchive.org\">Fat Liberation Archive<\/a> is a digital collection of ephemera from over fifty years of fat liberation activism in the UK. The archive includes zines, flyers, articles, and audio recordings.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. 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data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"625017400_18056227754664656_3414492651044117605_n\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-375-1042-693\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/6\/1436544.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Who gets a fictional fandom tattoo in 2026?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\/article\/69627\/1\/clone-love-why-couple-theory-looking-like-each-other-likeness-siblings-or-dating\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"david beckham and victoria beckham\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-0-2848-1894\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437805.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Clone love: Why couples start looking like each other<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"swiper-slide list-element\">\n<div class=\"scard-latest__section\">\n<div class=\"card-latest__wrapper\"><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\/article\/69636\/1\/aya-tariq-make-up-artist-mua-rama-diwaji-inauguration-smoky-eye\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aya Tariq Rama Duwaji makeup\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-2-3000-1995\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437318.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Aya Tariq is the MUA behind Rama Duwaji\u2019s ceremonial smoky eyes<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\/article\/69599\/1\/meet-jenny-collins-the-tattooist-behind-chappell-roans-grammy-look\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Chappell Roan Grammys tattoos nipples\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/372-117-2399-1596\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437408.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Meet the artist behind Chappell Roan\u2019s medieval tattoos<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\/article\/69531\/1\/ozempic-sex-libido-mounjaro-body-positivity\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ozempic size zero libido sex lives\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-0-760-506\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437097.jpeg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">\u2018I can\u2019t even be bothered to masturbate\u2019: Ozempic and the death of desire<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline\" data-newsletter hidden>\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>We all know that we live in a deeply\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/fatphobia\">fatphobic<\/a> society. Netflix&#8217;s recent <\/span><em><span>America\u2019s Next Top Model<\/span><\/em><span> documentary took us back to the early 2000s when it was considered appropriate to scold young, impressionable women for not having perfectly flat stomachs, with Tyra Banks telling one of the already very thin contestants that she should \u201cwatch what she eats\u201d. It\u2019s not an overstatement to say that body positivity didn\u2019t really exist in the 2000s. But in the 2010s, we witnessed what I would now describe as a flawed but radical movement towards body positivity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This movement was not perfect, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/body-positivity-2010-2019-movement\/\">Lindsay King-Miller wrote for <\/a><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/body-positivity-2010-2019-movement\/\"><em><span>Bitch<\/span><\/em><\/a><span> in 2014: \u201cToday\u2019s body positivity focuses too much on affirming beauty and not enough on deconstructing its necessity.\u201d But compared to how far we have regressed, the 2010s starts to look like a lost haven. Today, it has become normalised to refer to oneself or others as a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@parismwendwa\/video\/7603913160327712013?_r=1&amp;_t=ZN-94AGQfZDNAc\">big back<\/a>\u201d \u2013 a comment often made when a person thinks they\u2019ve overeaten or wants to eat unhealthily \u2013 and to see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\/article\/66896\/1\/plus-size-celebrities-lose-weight-ozempic-lizzo-adele-remi-bader-body-posivity\">former curve models and actresses become thinner and thinner<\/a>. Speaking to a wider cultural saturation, there were several advertisements about GLP-1 medicines for weight loss and diabetes at the recent Super Bowl. The most alarming featured tennis legend Serena Williams, who stated that she is \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DUgLtdyiVhP\/\">healthier on Ro<\/a>\u201d, the membership-based telehealth platform that offers access to GLP-1.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Alongside the normalisation of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/ozempic\">Ozempic<\/a> and other weight loss drugs, we are witnessing the resurgence of fatphobia in both overt and covert ways, and we all have a responsibility to reject this. If you are also sick of our deeply fatphobic society and want to unlearn your own bias and challenge others, we\u2019ve compiled a short reading list about fatness, body image, eating disorders and food.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><em>TELL ME HOW YOU EAT: POWER AND THE WILL TO LIVE, <\/em>AMBER HUSAIN<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Today we are encouraged to take weight loss pills and injections that make us uninterested in food. But even before GLP-1s, we were already living in a world, as Amber Husain argues in her new book, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\/article\/69515\/1\/amber-husain-author-interview-tell-me-how-you-eat-book-review-eating-disorders\"><em><span>Tell Me How You Eat Power and the Will to Live<\/span><\/em><\/a><span>, that made eating easy for some and hard for others. Husain challenges our normative understanding of eating disorders and highlights the ways that social inequalities makes us sick and disinterested in eating, but my favourite part of the book is when Husain writes about food and its erotic and generative potential. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>She writes about a scene from Audre Lorde\u2019s book <\/span><em><span>Zami: A New Spelling of My Name<\/span><\/em><span>, where she attended a party held by Black lesbians: \u201cHere the liquor flows viscous and heavy: gin, bourbon, scotch and various mixers stand opened, the bar less dotted than swamped with delicacies of all descriptions. Most important, there is a platter of fried chicken wings, a pan of potato-\u200b\u00ad\u200b\u00adand-\u200b\u00adegg salad dressed with vinegar, and a huge central platter of beef arranged over a pan of cracked ice. The room is \u2018alive and pulsing with loud music\u2019.\u201d If you have complicated feelings around food and are looking for possible answers, this is the book for you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><em>DEAD WEIGHT: ESSAYS ON HUNGER AND HARM,<\/em> EMMELINE CLEIN\u00a0<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Husain and Clein\u2019s books both speak to one another. <\/span><em><span>Dead Weight <\/span><\/em><span>challenges dominant narratives around dieting and fatness, with Clein arguing that the real danger might not be fatness itself, but the constant cycle of dieting. She points to research showing that many studies linking fatness to poor health fail to account for confounding variables, most notably the prevalence of weight cycling among people categorised as \u201cobese\u201d. A 2019 study from Columbia University, for example, found that women with a history of \u201cyo-yo\u201d dieting had more cardiovascular risk factors than those who maintained a consistent weight, regardless of whether that weight was considered \u201chealthy\u201d. Clein concludes that much of what\u2019s reported as data on the dangers of fatness may, in fact, reflect the harms of <\/span><em><span>chronic dieting<\/span><\/em><span>. It is an eye-opening read.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><em>FAT SWIM<\/em>, EMMA COPLEY EISENBERG<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span><em>Fat Swim<\/em> is yet to be released, but it is one of my most anticipated reads for 2026. Unlike the other books on this list, it is the only fiction novel \u2013 a collection of linked stories about different fat people which explores the contradictions, joys and violence of the modern world. The blurb states that: \u201cFor better or for worse, these stories counsel, none of us can leave our bodies behind: they remind us what it is to be alive.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><em>BELLY OF THE BEAST: THE POLITICS OF ANTI-FATNESS AS ANTI-BLACKNESS,<\/em> DA&#8217;SHAUN L HARRISON<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><em><span>Belly Of The Beast: The Politics Of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span>by Da\u2019shaun L Harrison is an essential read for understanding the connection between anti-fatness and racism. The fat, Black, disabled and non-binary writer highlights the state-sanctioned murders of fat Black people, the ways anti-fatness and anti-blackness show up in everyday life, and more. The book tackles many topics, from desirability politics to attempts to challenge our cultural understanding of fatness as bad.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><em><span>HUNGER: A MEMOIR OF (MY) BODY BY ROXANE GAY<\/span><\/em><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Roxane Gay is one of my favourite writers. She\u2019s not the kind of writer to avoid complication \u2013 she sees it and runs straight towards it, as you can see in her 2017 book <\/span><em><span>Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span>She is not interested in making anyone feel better or good about <\/span><em><span>their<\/span><\/em><span> bodies, because this is her story. It\u2019s a sad and challenging read, where Gay writes about being raped at the age of 12 by her boyfriend and several of his friends, and how this experience has impacted her relationship with her body and with food. Gaye explicitly responds to the world\u2019s disgust with her body type and much more.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span><em>THE BODY IS NOT AN APOLOGY<\/em> BY SONYA RENEE TAYLOR<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Rather than parroting liberal feminist self-help rhetoric around loving oneself and one\u2019s body, <\/span><em><span>The Body Is Not An Apology<\/span><\/em><span> by Sonya Renee Taylor highlights how radical self-love cannot exist without social justice. The book highlights how we exist within a system that profits from making us hate our bodies and writes about how we combat this terror. <\/span><em><span>The Body Is Not An Apology<\/span><\/em><span> is now in its second edition and shows how racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and fatphobia are all interconnected.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>THE FAT LIBERATION ARCHIVE\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p>Created by Dr Carlie Pendleton, the <a href=\"https:\/\/fatlibarchive.org\">Fat Liberation Archive<\/a> is a digital collection of ephemera from over fifty years of fat liberation activism in the UK. The archive includes zines, flyers, articles, and audio recordings.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\/article\/69721\/1\/fatphobia-fat-liberation-reading-list-books&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/928\/64-0-928-618\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/8\/1438511.jpeg&#8221;] Real Women Have Curves, 2002 (Film Still) February\u00a0 24,\u00a0 2026 Beauty \/ Beauty Feature Beauty \/ Beauty Feature Want to unlearn fatphobia? Read these 6 books As Ozempic and other weight loss drugs become normalised, so too does renewed pressure to be thin \u2013 here\u2019s a reading list to resist it February\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,76],"class_list":["post-1789799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1789799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1789799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1789799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1789799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1789799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1789799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}