No Fat Chicks: How Women Are Brainwashed to Hate Their Bodies and Spend Their Money

Linda Perry is a senior policy analyst with the Ontario Ministry of
Citizenship, Culture and Recreation.

Adopting a feminist perspective on the societal aspects of women’s
weight loss, this book details how women have been manipulated into
becoming obsessive consumers in the ever-expanding market for diet
books, food substitutes, and exercise gimmicks. The author argues
persuasively that our current obsession with fitness is the product of
marketing hype, which promotes slimness as the only acceptable body type
and dismisses as greedy or lazy those who fail to achieve this standard.
Driving the fitness industry is the promise that “fat chicks” can be
transformed if only they purchase the right exercise video, sauna suit,
or weight-loss membership. Poulton, whose own weight-loss career
included having her stomach stapled, provides a powerful counterargument
to our culture’s current image of physical perfection.