Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings

Fatness and the desire to avoid did not, in fact, originate in medical literature--that followed later. In Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia, Dr. Sabrina Strings deftly, thoroughly, and convincingly shows how fat phobia, as it relates to black women in particular, grew out of an Enlightenment-era belief that being fat was a result of racial inferiority. Fat bodies, in fact, used to be praised in art and even medical works.

Furthermore, Dr. Strings persuasively argues that the current slim body ideal is rooted in racism. Dr. Strings demonstrates through impressive primary source work that it wasn't until the early twentieth century that the medical establishment began to fear obesity and advise against it.

Fearing the Black Body is vital reading for understanding views on bodies, particularly women's bodies, in the present day. 

Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings, NYU Press