‘Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia’ (2024) by Kate Manne

Kate Manne’s Unshrinking, How to Face Fatphobia (2024) details her lived and academic experience with fatphobia in private and public in order to promote what she calls “body reflexivity,” an adaptable term used to forgo judgment of ourselves and reject any need to judge another person’s body or assign negative or positive judgment to it (p. 205). Despite her writing and research on dehumanization through misogyny, she details how internalized fatphobia has crept its way into her psyche, made her attempt to shrink herself, and even shaped her willingness to pursue professional opportunities out of fear of how her body will be perceived and treated. This “imposter syndrome,” she says, is much less reflective of how one feels, but how one feels as a result of their lived reality and social treatment (p. 120). When we are treated as imposters, we feel like imposters. Unshrinking has a conversational and engaging writing style sprinkled with anecdotes and humor.