Worth Your Weight has posted praise for Pattie Thomas and her sociological memoir Taking Up Space (co-written with Thomas's husband, Carl Wilkerson) at her fat acceptance blog.
Read the post (and appreciative comments) here.
Taking Up Space was published by Pearlsong Press in fall 2005.
Patricia Nordyke Pando calls Taking Up Space (Pattie Thomas, Ph.D. with Carl Wilkerson, 2005, Pearlsong Press) "outstanding" in a review just published at the Story Circle Network Book Review website.
This book is a memoir and a family history. Thomas tells of her struggles "to pass for thin" through years of self-hatred and despair. She embellishes the text with her own poems, personal essays and drawing. It is a deeply personal account, but it is more. With a Ph.D. in sociology, Thomas draws on her professional training to take a dispassionate look at how anti-obesity marketing invades American life and values.
....Lots of people will benefit and/or enjoy this outstanding book....Memoir readers will relish it....as an economist and a teacher, I can see parts of this book being assigned in an economics or marketing class. The analysis of consumer manipulation is clear-eyed and accurate. This is an important book that should indeed take up space on many shelves.
Read the entire review here.
The Story Circle Network was founded in early 1997 by Dr. Susan Wittig Albert. It is
dedicated to helping women share the stories of their lives and to raising public awareness of the importance of women's personal histories....The Network is for every woman who aims to claim the power of her experience, who wants to map her journey, and who is determined to name herself.
A quotation by Sandra Gilbert & Susan Gubar on the SCN website seems particular apt considering Taking Up Space's subject matter:
Women will starve themselves in silence until new stories are created which confer on them the power of naming themselves.
The media kit for TAKING UP SPACE by Pattie Thomas, Ph.D. (with Carl Wilkerson, M.B.A.) contains several useful Health At Every Size and fat-hatred-fighting resources in addition to information on the book and authors.
The media kit includes a Q & A on Size Diversity authored (and copyrighted) by Miriam Berg, president of the Council on Size & Weight Discrimination (used with permission), Tips for Fighting Fat Stigma co-authored by Thomas and Veronica Cook-Euell (host of the Size Matters radio show), a list of Health At Every Size experts with contact info, and the Declaration of Taking Up Space.
The full media kit in PDF form can be downloaded at the Pearlsong Press website (at Pattie Thomas's newsroom page, her author page, or the TAKING UP SPACE page) or by clicking here. Individual components of the media kit, such as the "Tips for Fighting Fat Stigma" or "Q & A on Size Diversity" alone, can be downloaded at Thomas's Pearlsong Press newsroom page (here).
Glossy color flyers of the Declaration of Taking Up Space are also available from Pearlsong Press for postage costs. As long as our supply lasts we will be happy to send you a stack of flyers for distribution and activism (or simply to help you remember your right to take up space in the world) if you will pay the cost of sending them to you. (A large stack of flyers can be send priority mail within the U.S. for $4.60.) If you're interested, email us at contact @ pearlsong.com.
WorldCat.org lists some of the libraries in the U.S. with Taking Up Space by Pattie Thomas, Ph.D. in their holdings:
The recent media wave about the proposed addition of height & weight to Massachusetts' anti-discrimination law (see the recent Boston Globe/Associated Press article that ran in newspapers and on websites across the country), has reminded me of a great handout on weight discrimination that we published on the Pearlsong Press website when launching Pattie Thomas, Ph.D's book Taking Up Space.
"Questions and Answers on Size Diversity," written by Miriam Berg, president of the Council on Size & Weight Discrimination, defines "weight discrimination" and describes why it's a problem. I've posted a link to the document on the main page of the Pearlsong Press website to make it easy for people to find.
Check it out, and consider downloading & sharing with with friends, colleagues, or journalists if the topic of weight discrimination comes up. Or just refer them to www.pearlsong.com.
I've also posted a link to another document Thomas created along with size diversity expert Veronica Cook-Euell: "Tips for Fighting Fat Stigma."
These are great resources. Thanks, Miriam, Pattie, and Veronica!
The anonymous bloggist at redpolka.org has posted a review of Pattie Thomas, Ph.D.'s book Taking Up Space. Click here to read it.
The gist:
This book rocked.
End of review!
OK, she does say more...
...it's the sort of book I've been waiting for. It's an Official Fat Chick Book that has something serious and smart to say - equal parts memoir and sociological study, as promised, but also a guide to living in and changing a world that really hates fat people.
Woo hoo!
Now, if we could just get Amazon.com to correctly list Pattie as the author, instead of Paul Campos, who wrote the foreword....
Nashville, TN psychotherapist Susan Hammonds-White, Ed.D., LPC/MHSP has recommended Taking Up Space by Pattie Thomas, Ph.D. (with Carl Wilkerson, M.B.A.) to anyone "who has struggled with weight or who works with clients who face these issues."
She describes the book, published by Pearlsong Press in fall 2005, as "a feast of information, ideas, talking points, discussions....challenging, disturbing, and ultimately comforting as it attempts to change deeply held prejudices that for most of us are unconscious."
Dr. Hammonds-White reviewed the book In the Winter 2006 issue of Psychobits, the newsletter of the Nashville Psychotherapy Institute. She writes:
This fascinating book is a personal memoir written by Pattie Thomas, a medical sociologist who has lived with the personal struggle of being fat in a thin society for the majority of her life.
In her own words, "Taking Up Space is a collection of essays, poems, narratives, photos and drawings that tell the story of my own intellectual, emotional and physical journey to fat acceptance." Dr. Thomas has been through most of the experiences that people who are fat in this society experience: multiple diets, regaining lost weight and more, teasing, problems with seating in theaters and airplanes, snide remarks from passers-by, lectures from healthcare professionals, criticism from life partners and friends. She thought the battle with weight was within herself, and felt that she was "at war with her own body."
About ten years ago she came to believe that she was actually engaged in a cultural struggle, rather than a medical one. This book is the story of her change of heart and understanding.
Dr. Thomas points out that no one is interested in the fat person's discussion of her experience--that the fat woman's story has no validity until SHE HAS LOST WEIGHT.
Her own story is written to counter this belief and to speak her own truth. She states that:
the power of a woman with a fat body talking about the unspeakable went beyond the issue of body size. It spoke to the depths of a consumption culture dependent upon human beings being perpetually dissatisfied with their physicality, with themselves...
The book is a feast of information, ideas, talking points, discussions. Anyone who has struggled with weight or who works with clients who face these issues will find this book challenging, disturbing, and ultimately comforting as it attempts to change deeply held prejudices that for most of us are unconscious.
The Nashville Psychotherapy Institute is a multidisciplinary association for mental health professionals in the middle Tennessee area. Dr. Hammonds-White is the 2006-2007 co-chair of the organization.
Lara Frater, author of Fat Chicks Rule! has given a thumb's up to Taking Up Space (by Pattie Thomas, Ph.D.) on her blog.
She calls it "terrific...a fabulous and honest book about the myths of obesity as well as the author's personal journey to size acceptance."
Fat Chicks Rule! is a pretty cool book itself. Check it out.
The size/fat acceptance blog Big Fat Blog has posted a great review of Pattie Thomas, Ph.D.'s Taking Up Space, which was published by Pearlsong Press in October.
It's been a while since there's been a book review on BFB, but I wanted to give a capsule review of Dr. Pattie Thomas's new Taking Up Space. In short, it's one of the best fat acceptance and fat activism books I've read in recent memory - and is definitely worth your time.
Read more at http://www.bigfatblog.com/archives/001750.php#more.
Woo hoo!
Word is spreading about the book and its empowering message. Although it's not an academic text, some college professors have already expressed interest in using Taking Up Space in their classes for its insightful critique of culture and fat stigma.
Akron, OH radio talk show host Veronica Cook-Euell is launching a new book club focusing on size acceptance, body image, and Health At Every Size. She's picked Pattie Thomas, Ph.D.'s Taking Up Space (subtitled How Eating Well & Excercising Regularly Changed My Life) as the club's first selection.
The original trade paperback of Taking Up Space ($25) was published by Pearlsong Press in October.
Thomas will be in Akron Tuesday, Nov. 8 for a booksigning and presentation at the Goodyear branch library to kick off the book club. A limited number of books will be available for purchase at the event. The book is also available through online and offline bookstores and the Pearlsong Press website.
For more info, see the press release at PRWEB.
Charlie Lovett: The Program
A new weight loss clinic in New York City has an offer for you -- given them $5,000 and they'll make you as thin as a supermodel. You can eat whatever you want and never gain an ounce. Tempted? Fledgling journalist Karen Sumner would be -- if only she had $5,000. When Karen finally walks through the blue and gold doors of The Program, however, she's on the trail of the hottest story of her career. If she and her friends are right, The Program is doing something even worse than creating an army of unnaturally thin women. Library Journal calls The Program "a lively first novel. Highly recommended."
Linda C Wisniewski: Off Kilter: A Woman's Journey to Peace with Scoliosis, Her Mother, and Her Polish Heritage
Even before she was diagnosed with scoliosis at 13, Linda Wisniewski felt off kilter. Born to a cruel father in the insulated Polish Catholic community of Amsterdam, New York, she learned martyrdom as a way of life. Off Kilter shows her learning to stretch her Self as well as her spine as she comes to terms with her mentally deteriorating, widowed mother and her culture. Only by accepting her physical deformity, her emotionally unavailable mother, and her Polish American heritage does she finally find balance and a life that fits. Maureen Murdock, author of Unreliable Truth: On Memoir & Memory, calls Off Kilter "a courageous, insightful book, particularly relevant for anyone who grew up feeling physically 'different.'"
Pat, Ballard: The Best Man
Sparks fly the night Lana Clarke meets to plan her sister's wedding -- and not just because curvaceous Lana announces she's stopped dieting and doesn't care if she's fat as maid of honor. The strong-willed sister of the bride attracts the attention of the groom's devastatingly handsome best man, Anthony Angelino. But when the sparks become flames, Lana's in trouble. Tony's first wife died mysteriously. Will Lana be next?
Judy Bagshaw: At Long Last, Love
Big beautiful --and in some cases slightly more mature -- heroines grace the pages of this collection of romantic short stories by Judy Bagshaw.
Jack Adler: Splendid Seniors
An inspiring ensemble of 52 people whose accomplishments after age 65 remind us that creativity, passion & influence can not only flower in later years, but bear delicious fruit.
Mary Saracino: The Singing of Swans
"The Singing of Swans is a remarkable narrative calling--even compelling--us to connect with our own ancestral roots, to seek our own inner wisdom, and to reclaim our own inner voices!" --Margaret Starbird, author of The Woman With the Alabaster Jar & Mary Magdalene: Bride in Exile
Ellen Frankel: Beyond Measure: A Memoir About Short Stature and Inner Growth
"If you have ever measured your height or your weight and felt good or bad about yourself as a result, you need this book. In its pages, Ellen Frankel makes an important contribution to human liberation by telling the most fabulous story that can be told, the story of a person coming fully into her own. This book is thought-provoking, heart-rending, and a genuine solace for people of all sizes." --Marilyn Wann, author of FAT!SO?
Pat Ballard: Abigail's Revenge
Injustice, romance and suspense smolder in a small Southern town. Romantic suspense from the Queen of Rubenesque Romances, Pat Ballard.
Pattie Thomas, Ph.D.: Taking Up Space
"Thomas's incisive blend of sociological inquiry and personal narrative amounts to a provocative treatise on fat oppression in our culture. Taking Up Space is a kind of roadmap through the minefield of the 'war on obesity,' and it offers protection to the reader ready to fight for cultural change surrounding the meaning of fatness." --Kathleen LeBesco, Ph.D., author of Revotling Bodies: The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity.
Anne Richardson Williams: Unconventional Means: The Dream Down Under
Shattered by family tragedy in the early 1960s, an upper-middle-class Southern teenager finds solace in art and literature. Decades later she is called to the continent whose literature once comforted her, and to a magical connection with an Aboriginal woman transcending race and half a world.
Pat Ballard: A Worthy Heir
When Pam Spencer sees the newspaper ad seeking "a worthy heir" to Fiona Bainbridge's millions, she jumps at the chance to get her brother the medical care he needs after a job-related accident. But Reese Bainbridge, Fiona's handsome grandson--and jilted heir--rushes home in anger when he hears his grandmother has moved Pam and her brother into the family mansion. Sparks fly--and Pam is up to the challenge.
Pat Ballard: His Brother's Child
One party, one silver-tongued, double-talking stranger intent on winning a bet, and Faith Carr ends up betrayed, alone, and pregnant. When Edward Brenner shows up on her doorstep intending to right his brother's wrongs, she's scared and vulnerable. But she agrees to marry this stranger to give the baby a father, although keeping him at a distance. She doesn't realize that Edward fell in love with her the moment he saw her. Will her battered self-esteem allow her to see the truth--and her own beauty?
Pat Ballard: Wanted: One Groom
Wealthy Hanna Rockwell will lose her home and her inheritance unless she marries by her 30th birthday. She's stunned when Matt Corbett, the faded rock start she worshipped in her teens, accepts her brother's offer to bail him out of financial trouble if he'll marry her. Her teenaged fantasies come to life--bringing a few surprises with them.
Pat Ballard: Nobody's Perfect
Nella Covington can't believe she's agreed to marry arrogant Samuel du Cannon, even if it IS only a marriage of convenience. He needs a mother for his young son, and she needs to keep her childhood home. If Sam's work keeps him on the road enough, she won't have to deal with him much. Sam's never been attracted to plus-size women, so they won't be tempted to have a real relationship. At least, that's what they keep telling themselves--
Pat Ballard: Dangerous Curves Ahead: Short Stories
Ten romantic tales pack suspense and sizzle into this collection of short stories featuring amply curved women.
