Bitch Magazine
(Spring 2004)

Writer and humorist Wendy Shanker’s first book was born of frustration: of a lifetime of comments like “You’d be so pretty if only you lost some weight”; of unsolicited advice from family, friends, and even strangers; of spending her cash on diets, diet books, and even diet retreats that didn’t work.  Most important, she was tired of the idea that “fat” equals “bad,” and The Girl’s Guide amounts to a collection of razor-sharp retorts to the diet industry and our female-focused culture of body obsession and self-loathing.  “It’s time to change our attitudes about this whole body-image business,” she writes.  “It is a business.  It is an image.  But it’s your body, which contains your mind, which can be a whole lot easier to change than the width of your thighs or the shape of your ass.”  With witty, straight-shooting advice on everything from talking back to doctors and well-meaning family members to getting confident in the sack, Shanker encourages full-figured ladies to be both fit -- mentally, emotionally, politically, and physically -- and fat, with no apologies for either.
ANDI ZEISLER

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