7 great books about body image to add to your summer reading list
Inspiring messages about loving your curves abound on social media these days, and Assa Cisse, Tess Holliday, and Nadia Aboulhosn are just a few of the women who have made space for plus-size women in the fashion world. We can thank the body positivity movement, which is focused on self-love and celebrating your shape, for a part of that shift — and for helping drive a much-needed conversation on how women's bodies are scrutinized in the age of social media.
But while there's lots to like about body positivity, it's not perfect. There isn't always a lot of room to express more complicated feelings about looks and confidence (it's not always easy to go from self-loathing to self-loving in an instant). And the movement itself has been criticized for not being inclusive — some argue that white, able-bodied women tend to be given the spotlight, while women of colour, women with disabilities, queer women, trans women and gender non-binary folks tend to be left out of the conversation.
Clearly, there’s a lot of work to do when it comes to highlighting different narratives about body image. But luckily, there are several standout authors who are tackling this complex topic. Some of these reads have been around for a while, while others are recent and ground-breaking (such as Roxane Gay’s Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body). And while these writers might not necessarily agree with each other on every single point, debate kind of comes with the territory: the way we see ourselves is a tricky subject, but necessary to explore.
7 writers get real on body image
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay’s latest book, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, is a powerful meditation on being a woman of size. In Gay’s words, her story is “not a success story,” but “simply, a true story,” — and she doesn’t hold back in the telling, from revealing the trauma that triggered her weight gain (she was raped at age 12 by a group of boys from her school) to detailing an adulthood spent grappling with irreconcilable desires: to fit in this world and to accept herself as she is. It’s rare to read such a raw depiction of a woman’s relationship with food. She’s blunt about wanting to be seen and desired. But she’s also honest about using food to hide herself, writing, “I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe.”
Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West
In Shrill, Guardian columnist and former Jezebel writer Lindy West recounts her journey from shy kid to opinionated woman who loves her body — and the consequences of accepting herself so publicly. (Here’s looking at you, internet trolls.) From her attempts to find fat women role models to confronting Dan Savage and his misguided take on the “obesity epidemic,” West is an empowering force.
13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad
These short stories revolving around Liz (known, variously, as Lizzie, Beth, and Elizabeth depending on what stage of life she’s in) and her quest to be thin are both devastating and laugh-out-loud hilarious. From befriending women co-workers and despising their eating habits to dealing with snarky sales associates when trying on that coveted von Furstenberg, Liz’s world is one where women are hypercritical and food is the enemy. But Awad also delivers a poignant take on why women are so often unsatisfied by the way we look — and an empathetic one, too.
Bodymap by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Described as a “queer disabled femme-of-color love song” by its author, Bodymap explores the terrains of disability and desire, all while reflecting on the power of survivorhood. It’s a collection of poems that’s a testament to love — found in partnerships and within the self — and how the body can be a political entity. You’ll cry through the gutsiest of poems, but will also feel renewed.
I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being a Woman by Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron’s 1972 Esquire essay, “A Few Words About Breasts,” arguably changed the way women talked, if not thought, about their bodies. This collection of essays, now a decade old, introduced a new generation of readers to Ephron’s work, and is loaded with her signature mix of candor and advice — from musings on how purses do nothing but ruin your shoulders to warning that, “Anything you think is wrong with your body at the age of thirty-five you will be nostalgic for at the age of forty-five.”
The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf
In this 90’s feminist staple that has opened many a mind, Wolf takes down the pursuit of the “flawless beauty” (read: tall, thin, white and blonde), revealing it to be a regressive — and possibly fatal — ideal.
Things No One Tells Fat Girls: A Handbook for Unapologetic Living by Jes Baker After years of writing her own blog (and setting up a viral Abercrombie & Fitch-style photoshoot that took down then-CEO Mike Jeffrie’s sizeist comments), Jes Baker teamed up with guest authors, like sexuality educator and social justice advocate Shanna Katz Kattari, to write Things No One Tells Fat Girls, a book that’s part memoir and part rallying cry to join the movement against fat-shaming. “We don’t need to stop using the word ‘fat,’ we need to stop the hatred that our world connects with the word ‘fat,’” Baker writes. This book is a must read for every woman who has felt up and down about her body — and has had enough of feeling that way.
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