Hanne Blank is most definitely “unapologetic.” One of her earlier books was Big Big Love: A Sex and Relationships Guide for People of Size (and Those Who Love Them). In The Unapologetic Fat Girl’s Guide to Exercise and Other Incendiary Acts her premise is that “the culture we live in is so hateful and abusive to everybody and every body that doesn’t measure up to its constantly shifting targets for ‘perfect’” that many women are ashamed to be seen exercising, although “it doesn’t seem to matter what size someone is. The beneficial side effects movement has on the body’s ability to maintain a healthy physical equilibrium appear to be among the few things in the world that seem genuinely to be one-size-fits-all.”
Hanne Blank has a witty, irreverent, and conversational style. She refers to her readers as “my glorious plumpling” and advises us to “flail proudly.” She claims to be “as intrinsically athletic as an oyster” and entitles a chapter about unsolicited, mean-spirited comments about size “Chub, Sweat and Jeers.”
The book includes lots of practical advice on things like how to choose a gym, bearing in mind factors like size of toilets stalls and general concerns like parking, friendliness and hours. Also how to choose a form exercise that you will enjoy and therefore continue doing. She gives two sample workouts and practical advice for swimsuits such as Aquatards you can buy if you prefer more coverage than a traditional swimsuit, and includes a Resource Guide with more books, DVDs, exercise programs and equipment.
The Unapologetic Fat Girl’s Guide to Exercise and Other Incendiary Acts is affirming whether you consider yourself “a fat girl” or not. Hanne Blank points out the simple truism that, “your body will inevitably change in shape and size, contour and proportion over the course of your life.” And as an antidote to the constant harping she has experienced throughout her life, she counsels that, “Hunger is not a moral issue. It is not your body’s way of trying to trick you into doing something that is bad for you” and significantly, “the number on the scale… does not measure virtue or goodness.”
I recommend this book for anyone who has ever curtailed any activity because they feared others judging their body. Read it alongside books like Fat! So? : Because You Don’t Have to Apologize for Your Size! by Marilyn Wann. And always remember what Hanne Blank says in her introduction, “Apologizing for having a body is basically the same thing as apologizing for being alive. “
Check the WRL catalog for The Unapologetic Fat Girl’s Guide to Exercise and Other Incendiary Acts.
Interesting. Talking about people’s weight is never an easy topic, I don’t actually agree with Blank that most women are ashamed to be seen exercising, although the proliferation of women’s only gyms would seem to indicate that we are afraid to exercise around men (which is amusing to me, as my experience indicates that it’s women who are the more judgmental ones and cause a good portion of the weight drama themselves.)
I think that society loves to see skinny women exercising, just not the fat ones. But as I follow things online (Pinterest, or just various blogs) I am overwhelmed by how many digitally altered pictures of skinny women are out there. Very few real women are built like the majority of women I see ogled on people’s blogs. If you watched the Olympics, you saw women at the peak of their fitness, people in astonishingly good shape, who eat very carefully and don’t just “exercise” in the gym a few days a week but dedicate their entire lives to fitness but these are not the women’s bodies we are worshiping. Society seems to drool over the big breasted, flat stomached, long legged beauty who is genetically pre-dispossessed to be athletic. Even magazines buy into this. There are articles everywhere about how to dress skinnier, how to hide your extra pounds. Fat girls shouldn’t wear stripes or big patterns. Because if I (as a fellow fat girl) don’t wear stripes you won’t notice those extra hundred pounds?
This sounds like an interesting book. Some “fat girls” can come across as angry and bitter in their defiance and that makes them rather unlikeable. But as someone who actually has chosen not to attend certain things because she doesn’t want to be judged about her weight, I think I might need to read this
Kathy, I think you’re right. And to take it further, you said “I think that society loves to see skinny women exercising, just not the fat ones,” sometimes it seems like society only wants to see skinny women doing anything!
And one of the main points of this book, that may not have come across in my post is that certainly being morbidly obese can be unhealthy,but Hanne Blank says she often experiences insults and put-downs when the person doing the insulting hides behinds the excuse of concern for Hanne Blank’s health.
Jan