The Invisible Woman: Confronting Weight Prejudice in America

A recent survey of American women found that a great many of them would rather be dead than fat. In every corner of the United States, fat children and adults are subject to ridicule and humiliation. The word "pretty" never applies to them, they are "pigs" "cows" or "hippos," and regardless of their eating behavior, they are viewed as "out of control" compulsive eaters. When it s time to choose teammates for a game, dates for a dance, or even just friends, heavy women are invisible.This intelligent, political, feminist treatise explores the all-pervasive prejudice against fat women. It is about shattering the stereotypes, raising awareness about harrassment, and asserting the truth that no one has the right to discriminate against anyone based on their size! Goodman exposes our culture s widely-accepted hatred of fat women, from the "health police" who feel that it is their right to approach and criticize strangers about their weight, health, or appearance, to the mass media who perpetuate inappropriate standards of beauty. The Invisible Woman also discusses weight obsession, false assumptions about diet and exercise, the fear and loathing of fat women as sexual beings, disturbing similarities between the aesthetic ideals of the Nazis and America s quiet extermination of heavy women, and an open letter to men who think fat women are ugly. Certain to be controversial, this book raises social and personal consciousness at pivotal time the public is finally becoming aware of weight prejudice and women are being encouraged to embrace the body with which they were born.Great timing! No other book that we have seen examines weight prejudice from a political, cultural, personal perspective.