{"product_id":"fearing-the-black-body-the-racial-origins-of-fat-phobia","title":"Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia","description":"\u003cp\u003eby Sabrina Strings\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNew York University Press\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e5\/7\/2019, paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSKU: 9781479886753\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow the female body has been racialized for over two hundred years\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is an obesity epidemic in this country and poor Black women are particularly stigmatized as \"diseased\" and a burden on the public health care system. This is only the most recent incarnation of the fear of fat Black women, which Sabrina Strings shows took root more than two hundred years ago.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStrings weaves together an eye-opening historical narrative ranging from the Renaissance to the current moment, analyzing important works of art, newspaper and magazine articles, and scientific literature and medical journals--where fat bodies were once praised--showing that fat phobia, as it relates to Black women, did not originate with medical findings, but with the Enlightenment era belief that fatness was evidence of \"savagery\" and racial inferiority.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe author argues that the contemporary ideal of slenderness is, at its very core, racialized and racist. Indeed, it was not until the early twentieth century, when racialized attitudes against fatness were already entrenched in the culture, that the medical establishment began its crusade against obesity. An important and original work, \u003ci\u003eFearing the Black Body\u003c\/i\u003e argues convincingly that fat phobia isn't about health at all, but rather a means of using the body to validate race, class, and gender prejudice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReviews:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"A meticulous work that puts the past in conversation with the future and demonstrates how the desires of a few can be forcefully encroached upon others until they hold true for many...reminds readers that policing weight, a la Foucault's 'biopolitics,' is almost always about control as much as it is about a 'preferred size.'\" -- \u003cem\u003eAmerican Journal of Sociology\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Once upon a time, fat bodies were celebrated in art, in newspapers and magazines, and in medical journals, but that all changed during the Enlightenment Era of the 18th century when fatness was purposefully intertwined with the idea that people of color were racially inferior savages. Sabrina Strings's incredible book analyzes how that shift continued to plague Black women....Fearing the Black Body makes the convincing argument that the thin ideal has always been racist.\" -- \u003cem\u003eBitch Media\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSabrina Strings \u003c\/b\u003eis \u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eChancellor's Fellow \u0026amp; Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. She was a recipient of the UC Berkeley Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship with a joint appointment in the School of Public Health and Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her work has appeared in \u003ci\u003eEthnic and Racial Studies\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eSigns: Journal of Women in Culture and Society\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eand Society, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eFeminist Media Studies\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Burning Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52069300830491,"sku":"Fearing the Black Body","price":33.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0466\/5121\/files\/81-DAuYt_9L._SL1500.jpg?v=1776360502","url":"https:\/\/burningbooks.com\/products\/fearing-the-black-body-the-racial-origins-of-fat-phobia","provider":"Burning Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}