Synopses & Reviews
Winner of the 2010 Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in PsychologyWinner of the 2010 Susan Koppelman Award for the Best Edited Volume in Womens Studies from the Popular Culture Association
We have all seen the segments on television news shows: A fat person walking on the sidewalk, her face out of frame so she can't be identified, as some disconcerting findings about the "obesity epidemic" stalking the nation are read by a disembodied voice. And we have seen the movies—their obvious lack of large leading actors silently speaking volumes. From the government, health industry, diet industry, news media, and popular culture we hear that we should all be focused on our weight. But is this national obsession with weight and thinness good for us? Or is it just another form of prejudice—one with especially dire consequences for many already disenfranchised groups?
For decades a growing cadre of scholars has been examining the role of body weight in society, critiquing the underlying assumptions, prejudices, and effects of how people perceive and relate to fatness. This burgeoning movement, known as fat studies, includes scholars from every field, as well as activists, artists, and intellectuals. The Fat Studies Reader is a milestone achievement, bringing together fifty-three diverse voices to explore a wide range of topics related to body weight. From the historical construction of fatness to public health policy, from job discrimination to social class disparities, from chick-lit to airline seats, this collection covers it all.
Edited by two leaders in the field, The Fat Studies Reader is an invaluable resource that provides a historical overview of fat studies, an in-depth examination of the movement's fundamental concerns, and an up-to-date look at its innovative research.
Review
"[An] empathetic study of meanings of cross-racial adoption to adoptees."-Law and Politics Book Review,Vol. 11, No. 11, Nov. 2001
Review
"This superb study of transracial adoption in the United States addresses profoundly vexing and divisive questions about the social, biological, cultural, and political meanings of identity. Displaying a rare blend of sociological wisdom, empathy, and eloquence, BirthMarks demonstrates how and why there can be no such thing as color-blind families or adoption policies so long as the color line remains an intractable American dilemma. Anyone who cares about the changing contours of families and race today should eagerly adopt this marvelous book."-Judith Stacey,author of In the Name of the Family
Review
"A compelling mixture of voices and social analysis . . . required reading for anyone seriously interested in adoption and families in a multiracial world."-Maxine Baca Zinn,Michigan State University
Review
"BirthMarks clarifies the complexities of transracial adoption, but it does much more than this. Sandra Patton's detailed and sensitive research helps us understand the depths of racial identity itself. The lesson here is that racial identity is not something given, but something achieved. This resonates not just for the adoptees Patton studies, but for us all. It suggests immense possibilities for resisting racism. Transcending the simplistic 'pro vs. con' debate about transracial adoption, Patton strives to present racial formation as a highly nuanced process of becoming oneself."-Howard Winant,Temple University
Review
"[An] empathetic study of meanings of cross-racial adoption to adoptees."
"This superb study of transracial adoption in the United States addresses profoundly vexing and divisive questions about the social, biological, cultural, and political meanings of identity. Displaying a rare blend of sociological wisdom, empathy, and eloquence, BirthMarks demonstrates how and why there can be no such thing as color-blind families or adoption policies so long as the color line remains an intractable American dilemma. Anyone who cares about the changing contours of families and race today should eagerly adopt this marvelous book."
"A compelling mixture of voices and social analysis . . . required reading for anyone seriously interested in adoption and families in a multiracial world."
"BirthMarks clarifies the complexities of transracial adoption, but it does much more than this. Sandra Patton's detailed and sensitive research helps us understand the depths of racial identity itself. The lesson here is that racial identity is not something given, but something achieved. This resonates not just for the adoptees Patton studies, but for us all. It suggests immense possibilities for resisting racism. Transcending the simplistic 'pro vs. con' debate about transracial adoption, Patton strives to present racial formation as a highly nuanced process of becoming oneself."
Review
"This book wastes no time getting in the reader's face about its intentions to break critical ground on the emerging field of fat studies and the need to combat inequities limiting the lives of fat people. The tone is strident; the essays will provoke reactions, especially from scholars studying obesity and other weight-related issues within a public health framework... This unapologetic reader, laced throughout with theory, analysis, and research findings, is written in a consistently direct and impassioned style. It is an invaluable map of fat studies, giving voice to its proponents and outlining an agenda for future work. Summing Up: Essential."-CHOICE,
Review
"The publication of is a watershed in the institutionalization of this new field. The thick volume comprises forty succinct pieces authored by a mix of established researchers and budding new scholars, overwhelmingly women, working in diverse academic fields from within the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences... Readers will find plenty to chew on in this big, fat, juicy volume."-Women's Review of Books,
Review
"An eye-opening, thought-provoking volume that challenges our basic assumptions as well as the 'truths' by which we have lived our lives, and eclares war on the 'War on Obesity'."-Feminism and Psychology,
Review
“So whats wrong with putting on an extra pound, or ten pounds, or, for that matter, a hundred and ten? According to the contributors to The Fat Studies Reader, nothing.”
-The New Yorker,
Review
“In the US, where two-thirds of the population are overweight or obese, the forthcoming book The Fat Studies Reader argues the problem is not obesity per se but the way it is presented in culture. Sociologists point to a ‘societal fat phobia which engenders prejudice against the obese—and argue that this prejudice is tolerated by those who would never dream of making racist or sexist remarks.”
-The Independent (UK),
Synopsis
Can White parents teach their Black children African American culture and history? Can they impart to them the survival skills necessary to survive in the racially stratified United States? Concerns over racial identity have been at the center of controversies over transracial adoption since the 1970s, as questions continually arise about whether White parents are capable of instilling a positive sense of African American identity in their Black children.
"[An] empathetic study of meanings of cross-racial adoption to adoptees"
Law and Politics Book Review, Vol. 11, No. 11, Nov. 2001
Through in-depth interviews with adult transracial adoptees, as well as with social workers in adoption agencies, Sandra Patton, herself an adoptee, explores the social construction of race, identity, gender, and family and the ways in which these interact with public policy about adoption. Patton offers a compelling overview of the issues at stake in transracial adoption. She discusses recent changes in adoption and social welfare policy which prohibit consideration of race in the placement of children, as well as public policy definitions of "bad mothers" which can foster coerced aspects of adoption, to show how the lives of transracial adoptees have been shaped by the policies of the U.S. child welfare system.
Neither an argument for nor against the practice of transracial adoption, BirthMarks seeks to counter the dominant public view of this practice as a panacea to the so-called "epidemic" of illegitimacy and the misfortune of infertility among the middle class with a more nuanced view that gives voice to those directly involved, shedding light on the ways in which Black and multiracial adoptees articulate their own identity experiences.
Synopsis
An] empathetic study of the meanings of cross-racial adoption to adoptees.--Law and Politics Book Review
Can White parents teach their Black children African American culture and history? Can they impart to them the survival skills necessary to survive in the racially stratified United States? Concerns over racial identity have been at the center of controversies over transracial adoption since the 1970s, as questions continually arise about whether White parents are capable of instilling a positive sense of African American identity in their Black children.
Through in-depth interviews with adult transracial adoptees, as well as with social workers in adoption agencies, Sandra Patton, herself an adoptee, explores the social construction of race, identity, gender, and family and the ways in which these interact with public policy about adoption. Patton offers a compelling overview of the issues at stake in transracial adoption. She discusses recent changes in adoption and social welfare policy which prohibit consideration of race in the placement of children, as well as public policy definitions of bad mothers which can foster coerced aspects of adoption, to show how the lives of transracial adoptees have been shaped by the policies of the U.S. child welfare system.
Neither an argument for nor against the practice of transracial adoption, BirthMarks seeks to counter the dominant public view of this practice as a panacea to the so-called epidemic of illegitimacy and the misfortune of infertility among the middle class with a more nuanced view that gives voice to those directly involved, shedding light on the ways in which Black and multiracial adoptees articulate their own identity experiences.
About the Author
Esther D. Rothblum is professor of women's studies at San Diego State University. She is the editor or co-editor of over twenty books, including
Overcoming Fear of Fat.
Sondra Solovay is an attorney, adjunct professor of law, content developer, and activist focusing on weight-related issues, diversity, and the law. She runs the Fat Legal Advocacy, Rights, and Education Project and is the author of Tipping the Scales of Justice: Fighting Weight-Based Discrimination. She lives in Berkeley, California.
Marilyn Wann is founder of the FAT! SO? 'zine and author of FAT! SO?: Because You Don't Have to Apologize for Your Size!