For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be smaller. I can tell you what I weighed on any significant occasion: my wedding day, the day I became a professor, the day my daughter was born. I've been bullied and belittled for my size, leading to extreme dieting. As a feminist philosopher, I wanted to believe that I was exempt from the cultural gaslighting that compels so many of us to ignore our hunger. But I was not.
Part memoir, part polemic, and part (all?) philosophy, this book aims to show why fatphobia is a vital social justice issue, and provide an analysis of what fatphobia is and how it works. Over the last several decades, implicit bias has waned in every category, from race to sexual orientation, except one: body size. I examine how anti-fatness operates—how it leads us to make devastating assumptions about a person’s character, attractiveness, fortitude, and intellect, and how it intersects with other systems of oppression. Fatphobia is responsible for wage gaps, medical neglect, and poor educational outcomes; it is a straitjacket, restricting our freedom, our movement, our potential.
I close by proposing a new politics of “body reflexivity”—a radical reevaluation of who our bodies exist in the world for: ourselves and no one else. When it comes to fatphobia, the solution is not to love our bodies more. Instead, we must dismantle the forces that control and constrain us, and remake the world to accommodate people of every size.
UNSHRINKING will be out in January 2024, and you can preorder the book via the links here (in the US) or here (in the UK).
Part memoir, part polemic, and part (all?) philosophy, this book aims to show why fatphobia is a vital social justice issue, and provide an analysis of what fatphobia is and how it works. Over the last several decades, implicit bias has waned in every category, from race to sexual orientation, except one: body size. I examine how anti-fatness operates—how it leads us to make devastating assumptions about a person’s character, attractiveness, fortitude, and intellect, and how it intersects with other systems of oppression. Fatphobia is responsible for wage gaps, medical neglect, and poor educational outcomes; it is a straitjacket, restricting our freedom, our movement, our potential.
I close by proposing a new politics of “body reflexivity”—a radical reevaluation of who our bodies exist in the world for: ourselves and no one else. When it comes to fatphobia, the solution is not to love our bodies more. Instead, we must dismantle the forces that control and constrain us, and remake the world to accommodate people of every size.
UNSHRINKING will be out in January 2024, and you can preorder the book via the links here (in the US) or here (in the UK).
EARLY PRAISE
"As someone raised in the era of "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels," I am beyond grateful to Kate Manne for ushering in the era of UNSHRINKING. This book is a tasty, tasty takedown of diet culture and a firm-but-gentle guide to finally getting free from fatphobia—individually, collectively, and within society at large. Is it too much to say that Manne has written a big, fat masterpiece?"
~Jessica DeFino, author of The Unpublishable substack newsletter
"Kate Manne's UNSHRINKING is an incisive polemic that brilliantly dissects fatphobia, the way it encroaches upon our lives, and how, ultimately, we can, if we are willing, do the challenging work of unlearning damaging ideas about fatness, health, and happiness. Manne is a beautiful writer with a consummate research ethic. The depth of her knowledge and how she synthesizes it is clear from the first page to the last and she deftly navigates personal narrative and cultural examination to demonstrate that the personal truly is political, particularly when you live in a fat body. What elevates UNSHRINKING is the keen awareness that there is no universal experience of fatness and that fatphobia, like everything else, is affected by the intersections of the identities we inhabit. UNSHRINKING is required reading for everyone who lives in an unruly human body. In UNSHRINKING, Manne has crafted an elegant, fierce, and profound argument for fighting fat oppression in ourselves, our communities, our culture."
~Roxane Gay, author of Hunger
“Trust Kate Manne to provide the clearest statement of the problems of the twenty-first century. She shows us, through science, reason, and human experience, the moral failure of fatphobia, in direct contradiction of the widespread and toxic narrative of fatness as a moral failing.”
~Emily Nagoski, co-author of Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle.
“UNSHRINKING is a tour de force that only someone with Kate Manne’s particular mix of rigor, clarity, and writerly skill could pull off—a must-read, no matter your body size, and an unignorable call to action. It’s devastating, it’s infuriating, it’s so fucking good.”
~Anne Helen Petersen, author of the Culture Study newsletter.
“To be fat in a thin-obsessed world is to be treated as a moral failure all the time. Through impeccable research, compelling writing, and refreshing honesty, UNSHRINKING undoes so much of that undeserved shame. Kate Manne brings her razor-sharp analysis to the world we all inhabit, reminding us all that fatness isn’t a deviance and should never have been treated as one to begin with. A rich text for the ages, one we should all read, especially if we desire to create a world that treats fat people with more dignity and less disdain than this one.”
~Evette Dionne, author of Weightless: Making Space for My Resilient Body and Soul.
“In UNSHRINKING, Kate Manne has given us an impeccably researched history of how anti-fat bias developed and develops within us all, as well as a thorough and incisive dissection of our modern moral panic about fat—all woven throughout with her powerful story of reclaiming her own body. If you have ever struggled to feel safe in your body as it is; if you have ever wondered who your body is for, Manne has articulated the answers: Our bodies belong to us. We are all better for her work.”
~Virginia Sole-Smith, author of Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture.
“Kate Manne lays bare the sinister power of fatphobia—its pervasiveness, its roots in anti-Blackness, its shoddy logic—and argues beautifully and clearly for the moral necessity to resist it. Both trenchant and moving, UNSHRINKING is a long overdue reckoning and a manifesto for true intersectionality.”
~Kimberlé Crenshaw, author of On Intersectionality: Essential Writings.
“UNSHRINKING is a deft auto-ethnographic work that brilliantly weaves together indisputable research with parts of Kate Manne’s own personal story. I am thrilled and thoroughly impressed with the scholarship and pivotal citational practice displayed in this book.”
~Da’Shaun L. Harrison, author of Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness.
“An essential book of impossible-to-overstate importance; UNSHRINKING is a lucid, vital addition to the fat canon.”
~Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and other Parties: Stories.
“Incisive . . . A brave, thought-provoking book. With rigorous research and personal experience, Manne tackles and dismantles fatphobia in all its forms.”
~Kirkus review
"Philosopher Manne is unapologetic in this brilliant takedown of fatphobia... Combining rigorous research, well-reasoned arguments, and lucid prose, Manne examines how fatphobia shows up in every facet of life: home, school, work, the doctor’s office, and in public... She writes movingly about her own struggles with fatphobia and coming to terms with her body and weaves in the experiences of many well-known fat activists, providing readers with a host of voices to seek out at greater length. Manne’s book is wide-ranging, accessible, and engaging. She ends with a compelling call to dismantle fatphobia and embrace all bodies as they are. “Your body is for you. We are not responsible for pleasing others.” An essential addition to the growing body of literature on the experiences of fat people and fighting fatphobia."
~Booklist (starred review)
~Jessica DeFino, author of The Unpublishable substack newsletter
"Kate Manne's UNSHRINKING is an incisive polemic that brilliantly dissects fatphobia, the way it encroaches upon our lives, and how, ultimately, we can, if we are willing, do the challenging work of unlearning damaging ideas about fatness, health, and happiness. Manne is a beautiful writer with a consummate research ethic. The depth of her knowledge and how she synthesizes it is clear from the first page to the last and she deftly navigates personal narrative and cultural examination to demonstrate that the personal truly is political, particularly when you live in a fat body. What elevates UNSHRINKING is the keen awareness that there is no universal experience of fatness and that fatphobia, like everything else, is affected by the intersections of the identities we inhabit. UNSHRINKING is required reading for everyone who lives in an unruly human body. In UNSHRINKING, Manne has crafted an elegant, fierce, and profound argument for fighting fat oppression in ourselves, our communities, our culture."
~Roxane Gay, author of Hunger
“Trust Kate Manne to provide the clearest statement of the problems of the twenty-first century. She shows us, through science, reason, and human experience, the moral failure of fatphobia, in direct contradiction of the widespread and toxic narrative of fatness as a moral failing.”
~Emily Nagoski, co-author of Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle.
“UNSHRINKING is a tour de force that only someone with Kate Manne’s particular mix of rigor, clarity, and writerly skill could pull off—a must-read, no matter your body size, and an unignorable call to action. It’s devastating, it’s infuriating, it’s so fucking good.”
~Anne Helen Petersen, author of the Culture Study newsletter.
“To be fat in a thin-obsessed world is to be treated as a moral failure all the time. Through impeccable research, compelling writing, and refreshing honesty, UNSHRINKING undoes so much of that undeserved shame. Kate Manne brings her razor-sharp analysis to the world we all inhabit, reminding us all that fatness isn’t a deviance and should never have been treated as one to begin with. A rich text for the ages, one we should all read, especially if we desire to create a world that treats fat people with more dignity and less disdain than this one.”
~Evette Dionne, author of Weightless: Making Space for My Resilient Body and Soul.
“In UNSHRINKING, Kate Manne has given us an impeccably researched history of how anti-fat bias developed and develops within us all, as well as a thorough and incisive dissection of our modern moral panic about fat—all woven throughout with her powerful story of reclaiming her own body. If you have ever struggled to feel safe in your body as it is; if you have ever wondered who your body is for, Manne has articulated the answers: Our bodies belong to us. We are all better for her work.”
~Virginia Sole-Smith, author of Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture.
“Kate Manne lays bare the sinister power of fatphobia—its pervasiveness, its roots in anti-Blackness, its shoddy logic—and argues beautifully and clearly for the moral necessity to resist it. Both trenchant and moving, UNSHRINKING is a long overdue reckoning and a manifesto for true intersectionality.”
~Kimberlé Crenshaw, author of On Intersectionality: Essential Writings.
“UNSHRINKING is a deft auto-ethnographic work that brilliantly weaves together indisputable research with parts of Kate Manne’s own personal story. I am thrilled and thoroughly impressed with the scholarship and pivotal citational practice displayed in this book.”
~Da’Shaun L. Harrison, author of Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness.
“An essential book of impossible-to-overstate importance; UNSHRINKING is a lucid, vital addition to the fat canon.”
~Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and other Parties: Stories.
“Incisive . . . A brave, thought-provoking book. With rigorous research and personal experience, Manne tackles and dismantles fatphobia in all its forms.”
~Kirkus review
"Philosopher Manne is unapologetic in this brilliant takedown of fatphobia... Combining rigorous research, well-reasoned arguments, and lucid prose, Manne examines how fatphobia shows up in every facet of life: home, school, work, the doctor’s office, and in public... She writes movingly about her own struggles with fatphobia and coming to terms with her body and weaves in the experiences of many well-known fat activists, providing readers with a host of voices to seek out at greater length. Manne’s book is wide-ranging, accessible, and engaging. She ends with a compelling call to dismantle fatphobia and embrace all bodies as they are. “Your body is for you. We are not responsible for pleasing others.” An essential addition to the growing body of literature on the experiences of fat people and fighting fatphobia."
~Booklist (starred review)