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 came out in January 2024, and you can order the book via the links here (in the US) or here (in the UK). You can read select extracts and excerpts based on the book here:
A few of my favorite conversations about the book are available here:
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 came out in January 2024, and you can order the book via the links here (in the US) or here (in the UK). You can read select extracts and excerpts based on the book here:
- Growing Up, My Body Was a Punch Line The Cut, January 4 2024
- What if “Food Noise” is Just… Hunger? New York Times, December 29 2023
- The Five Words that Helped Me Accept My Body Time, January 9 2024
- Medical Fatphobia Does Serious Harm to Patients Washington Post, January 31 2024
- Society Preaches Kindness—Unless You’re Fat. Why is Fatphobia Still on the Rise? The Guardian, January 12 2024
- People Who Moralize Fatness—But Not Other “Risky” Behaviors—Are Telling On Themselves Jezebel, February 9 2024
A few of my favorite conversations about the book are available here:
PRAISE FOR UNSHRINKING
"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
"The personal is political when it comes to fatphobia and Kate Manne has written this intimate and razor-sharp examination to expose the gaslighting, double standards and conditioning behind size discrimination. Manne’s new framework of “body reflexivity” offers valuable new ways and words to fight the existing power structures of fat oppression."
~Ms. Magazine
"Fatphobia, as defined by the author of this polemic, a Cornell philosophy professor, is a “set of false beliefs and inflated theories” about fat people which inform both health care and culture at large. Manne’s argument draws on personal experiences—she relates having gone on drastic diets and engaging in “dangerous, exploitative” relationships as a teen-ager—and on trenchant analyses of the ways in which fatness has been regarded throughout history. She proposes, for instance, that hatred of fatness is a consequence of racist ideas embedded in American culture in the era of slavery. Manne identifies “beauty and diet culture” as an additional culprit, and argues, “We are wronged bodies, not wrong ones.”"
~The New Yorker ("The Best Books We've Read in 2024 So Far")
"A breathtaking work of meticulous research, philosophical rigor, and personal anecdote. Manne, an associate professor of philosophy at Cornell University, writes for a general reader in a way that enlightens and engages. In Unshrinking, she argues that it’s not fatness that encumbers us, but “fatphobia,” which she describes as a system of oppression signaling “that some bodies should be ignored, disregarded, and mistreated.” It’s a set of attitudes and behaviors that work, metaphorically, like a straightjacket, with catastrophic results: limiting the freedoms and opportunities of fat people, and also—as Manne demonstrates persuasively yet heartbreakingly over the course of the book—causing them serious harm."
~Regan Penaluna, The Chicago Review of Books
"In her new book Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia, philosopher Kate Manne tears down the fortress of Western fatphobia, excavating its foundations in racism, misogyny, and classism, and clearing a space to build a better moral paradigm through which to relate to our bodies. Unshrinking is a project of deconstruction, archaeology, and care—of listening to the stories medical professionals have ignored or disdained, hearing the plaintive notes in speeches by fictional characters most people mock, and reading between the lines of physicians’ reports and autopsies."
~Emmeline Clein, LA Review of Books
"[A] potent and unsettling piece of social philosophy--a broadside against fatphobia... Manne clinically dissects a life warped from within and without by norms governing personal appearance and size. She revisits the searing words of childhood bullies, the cruel comments of graduate-school colleagues and cycle after cycle of dieting. In doing so she works to expose and contest the falsehoods of fatphobia... As a polemic, Unshrinking works. Manne’s case for the harmfulness of fatphobia is compelling. But the book’s greatest strength is its author’s personal narrative and the sense of justified grievance that runs through the prose like a line of fire... Unshrinking demonstrates amply the importance of aspiring to care a little less about the unruly behaviour of our irrepressible flesh."
~Simone Gubler, The Times Literary Supplement
"Unshrinking could be prescribed reading for anyone who has an embattled relationship with food and body size, although it is also a call to arms for all.."
~Sarah Moss, The Lancet
"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
"The personal is political when it comes to fatphobia and Kate Manne has written this intimate and razor-sharp examination to expose the gaslighting, double standards and conditioning behind size discrimination. Manne’s new framework of “body reflexivity” offers valuable new ways and words to fight the existing power structures of fat oppression."
~Ms. Magazine
"Fatphobia, as defined by the author of this polemic, a Cornell philosophy professor, is a “set of false beliefs and inflated theories” about fat people which inform both health care and culture at large. Manne’s argument draws on personal experiences—she relates having gone on drastic diets and engaging in “dangerous, exploitative” relationships as a teen-ager—and on trenchant analyses of the ways in which fatness has been regarded throughout history. She proposes, for instance, that hatred of fatness is a consequence of racist ideas embedded in American culture in the era of slavery. Manne identifies “beauty and diet culture” as an additional culprit, and argues, “We are wronged bodies, not wrong ones.”"
~The New Yorker ("The Best Books We've Read in 2024 So Far")
"A breathtaking work of meticulous research, philosophical rigor, and personal anecdote. Manne, an associate professor of philosophy at Cornell University, writes for a general reader in a way that enlightens and engages. In Unshrinking, she argues that it’s not fatness that encumbers us, but “fatphobia,” which she describes as a system of oppression signaling “that some bodies should be ignored, disregarded, and mistreated.” It’s a set of attitudes and behaviors that work, metaphorically, like a straightjacket, with catastrophic results: limiting the freedoms and opportunities of fat people, and also—as Manne demonstrates persuasively yet heartbreakingly over the course of the book—causing them serious harm."
~Regan Penaluna, The Chicago Review of Books
"In her new book Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia, philosopher Kate Manne tears down the fortress of Western fatphobia, excavating its foundations in racism, misogyny, and classism, and clearing a space to build a better moral paradigm through which to relate to our bodies. Unshrinking is a project of deconstruction, archaeology, and care—of listening to the stories medical professionals have ignored or disdained, hearing the plaintive notes in speeches by fictional characters most people mock, and reading between the lines of physicians’ reports and autopsies."
~Emmeline Clein, LA Review of Books
"[A] potent and unsettling piece of social philosophy--a broadside against fatphobia... Manne clinically dissects a life warped from within and without by norms governing personal appearance and size. She revisits the searing words of childhood bullies, the cruel comments of graduate-school colleagues and cycle after cycle of dieting. In doing so she works to expose and contest the falsehoods of fatphobia... As a polemic, Unshrinking works. Manne’s case for the harmfulness of fatphobia is compelling. But the book’s greatest strength is its author’s personal narrative and the sense of justified grievance that runs through the prose like a line of fire... Unshrinking demonstrates amply the importance of aspiring to care a little less about the unruly behaviour of our irrepressible flesh."
~Simone Gubler, The Times Literary Supplement
"Unshrinking could be prescribed reading for anyone who has an embattled relationship with food and body size, although it is also a call to arms for all.."
~Sarah Moss, The Lancet
"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)