CLICK ON THE PIC TO SEE FULL SIZE.
Ok so as not to overwhelm you, but I felt it was necessary to break this post into a few sections as we have a lot to say about it. Above, I have shown the first two pages of Chapter 1 and have highlighted some points of interest. If you want to see the rest of the exurb, you can go on Amazon.com as I did and do the whole search inside the book thing. Before I can even say anything about this book, can we please 1st define what the word skinny really means.
Websters defines skinny as:
1skin·ny Pronunciation: \ˈski-nē
\ Function: adjective
Inflected Form(s): skin·ni·er; skin·ni·est Date: 1573
1: resembling skin : membranous 2 a: lacking sufficient flesh : very thin : emaciated b: lacking usual or desirable bulk, quantity, qualities, or significance
Ok I don’t know about you, but none of these descriptions look appealing to me. What’s with the whole fat=unhealthy and thin=healthy…can we please see the research on that “science”? I can live with the fact that they use the word skinny , but what I can’t live with is the message it sends to women. I’m just baffled by the fact that in the course of only two pages they have called the reader a fat pig 3 times. I’m just a little confused on a what a fat pig is. If I am a size 2 and eat poorly does that make me a fat pig? What if I am a size 16 and eat healthy…am I still a fat pig? I think we need to start questioning the real message that most women will hear when they read this book. Although I respect Rory’s love for animal rights activism, I’m just not sure how affective it is under the guise of a weight loss book…and more than that, I just don’t buy it.
“…habitual drinking equals fat-pig syndrome…” what th’..??! Last time I checked, habitual drinking still equalled alcoholism. pfft.
ORGANIC RED WINE, however, is completely okay and apparently not a “gross vice” because someone sloshed on organic red wine is obviously *so* much more attractive than a common beer-drinker. oh. good. lorrdd.
I’m so glad you went to see this b*%$h’s lecture.
Wow. I hope my weight-obsessed roommate never finds this horrible book; the author sounds just like her, and the girl does NOT need encouragement!!
Besides the obvious flaws in her theory of ‘fatness,’ what’s up with the Smoking Nazi trip?
‘Smoking is so 1989′ ?!
As if smoking is a fad thing? So, if the book had been written in 1989, would she be advocating it? Yes, it’s an unhealthy habit, and I don’t recommend it for anyone (I know first-hand that it sucks to be hooked on niccotine), but the woman needs to chill out with her written attack method.
With this and the Anti-Gym’s No Chubbies campaign, it seems that attacking the consumer is very much in vogue recently. While most marketing attacks the consumer in some, often more subtle, way – predicated as it is on convincing its audience members that without buying or buying into (fill-in-the-blank product name), they’re simply inadequate -the new marketing strategies that attack the consumer outright blatantly bet on fanning the flames of guilt and shame for profit. The sad fact that so many of the target demographic for this book will pick it up, find themselves called “pigs,” and agree with the sentiment, most suffering from terrible insecurities and guilt about their eating habits that made them pick up the book in the first place.
I’m glad you went and confronted this author. And you’re right – her response to you made no sense. Plus, she’s doing more harm for veganism than good.
1) I find it interesting that these women are against violence toward animals but that they have no problem being violent to their fellow human beings. To repeated use the phrase “fat pig” is hate speech, pure and simple.
2) I met a woman who had struggled through addictions, a violent relationship, and bulimia. She read the book and decided that she could follow THIS diet because it was about “health” and not weight. She commented that there was something in the language of the book that really spoke to her, that reached her. I guarantee that it was the “fat pig” remark. If you call yourself “fat pig” (either mentally or aloud) then being addressed as such seems familiar, recognizable, negative thoughts masquerading as “the sound of truth.”
that skinny definition is really interesting I don’t think we look at it that way. “Lacking sufficient flesh” I sure don’t want to be lacking in something I need. So is skinny really healthy? Maybe this is just me but if you love animals why would you use them for a condescending term?
i don’t know about you but i think what this author is saying is hurting the reader in more than one way:
1. (Healthy = Skinny) = False ideology that literally is rotten trash for your mind. And lets say reading this book really does help someone to get skinny, their mind will be filled up with junk after reading this book, so in essence, the reader is transferring bodily rubbish to mental rubbish (which is way worse, by the way)…
2. I agree with Curvy: Calling the readers of this book “Skinny [B******]” is lowering readers self-esteem subconsciously, equating them with a B****… What a wholesome and uplifting book!
3. It’s a tasteless literature anyways, and I’d rather, during any kind of reading, be in a positive mental ambiance than be in a sewer reading this book…