Fat is a Feminist Issue

When I incidentally lost a kilo or two and realised that my joy at being on the path to weight loss was matched by sheer terror, my therapist recommended that I read Fat is a Feminist Issue by Susie Orbach. Written in 1978, it is considered a classic in the field of intuitive eating literature. The Kindle version bundles together the book and the followup self-help guide that she wrote in 1981; I am yet to start doing the self-help exercises, but they look tremendously valuable.

The premise
Much of what Orbach writes about is familiar to us now, though it was revolutionary at the time. Diets don't work, you must learn to love yourself and accept your body shape, etc. However, she has a strong emphasis on the social and cultural dimension of why women become compulsive overeaters or binge eaters, and believes that women will never overcome their disorders until they understand the function(s) that their fat has for them. (For example, desexualises, reduces competition, projects an image of friendliness, etc.) These function(s) are usually subconscious, so when the compulsive overeater brings them to consciousness, she has a much better chance of reframing those thoughts and challenging them; overcoming them is not necessary, as we are human after all! She provides a number of exercises (devised in the context of her group therapy sessions) to help readers understand what function their fat might play.

Outdated
Written 35 years ago, many of the social inequalities that Orbach writes about are not particularly relevant to society today. Orbach was writing at a time that the first couple of generations of women were entering the workforce and facing discrimination in the workplace, and many of her analyses relate to rebellion against male oppression or the expectation that a woman's primary role is that of homemaker and caretaker. It also relies somewhat on outdated psychological concepts that are reminiscent of something Freud might write - I'm glad that psychology has moved on since then!

... or is it?
In saying that, there are still many disparities between men and women, and in 2013 the expectation that women be either sexualised or invisible is still insidiously pervasive in our society. I personally found that some of what she wrote about fat as a way to desexualise the self 'clicked', and I look forward to completing her exercises and work out exactly what my fears about sexuality are. I am cringing at even having to write the word sexuality, so they are definitely there.

Also, not all of these fears relate to men or sex. I related to a section where she wrote about how intensely competitive our society is, and how fat can be a way to appear non-threatening and 'duck under the wave'. She also wrote about fat in the context of particular difficult food-oriented relationships like mother-daughter bond, which doesn't relate so much to me but might ring a bell for others.

In general, I am somebody who tends to roll their eyes at commentators who blame eating disorders on socio-cultural malaise ("the media! the media!"). I can't say that I look at celebrities and long for their Photoshopped abs; instead I judge myself based on my peers, whose bodies are very much real. I suppose it's true that as a young girl I consumed images of beauty, but that's a topic for another day. In any case, Orbach's exploration of social influences on fat and eating disorders is much more sophisticated than that. Though parts of the book may not be relevant to you, either from being a product of its time or because it also discusses anorexia, I would highly recommend reading it. It has provoked me to start exploring some of the fears around weight loss that I didn't even know existed, which is surely another step on the way to recovery.