CNN interviews this dude who’s written a book called “How to Survive (and Perhaps Thrive) on a Teacher’s Salary.” I’m sure he may have some good tips for living on $39,900 a year, as he claims, but that’s not what he’s doing. He’s living on $39,900 plus the value of all the unpaid labor his stay-at-home wife performs. The interview begins by explaining that he’s [...]
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books:Self-Help
I hate self-help books. Most of them boil down to vague and often victim-blaming platitudes about how everything bad that’s ever gotten in your way was your own damn fault for not thinking positively enough. Even psychiatry books, which should be a grade above self-help, often come across as condescending “mansplaining” when they try to offer solutions to women that we know from experience don’t [...]
Dear God Almighty. The Vixen Manual: How to Find, Seduce & Keep the Man You Want is a misogynist, anti-feminist piece of crap. In Steffans’ view, women have too long relied on the assumption that they’re the more emotional sex (!!!!!!!!) to get away with not acting responsibly (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). She suggests women have to act like ladies to get respected, which includes not giving it [...]
Real Fitness for Real Women: A Unique Workout Program for the Plus-Size Woman is a workout manual was designed for plus size women interested in feeling more comfortable in their skins. Because of this, it’s focused on movement, not diet, and features workout routines specifically designed for the needs and concerns of plus-sized women. By this, I mean that some of the moves are modified [...]
Geez Louise. The humor and good sense of Shanker’s The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life is a marked contrast to the neuroticism of Carol Lay’s The Big Skinny. Seriously? They both talk about bananas – Shanker’s all like, “Isn’t it messed up that one banana is two servings? Who only eats half a banana at a time?” Well. Carol Lay. This graphic novel focuses on [...]
Shanker is a diva on a mission. She wants to talk about the politics of fat and the politics weight loss. Her hilarious, honest take on one faboo woman’s body politics challenges conventional wisdom about weight, fashion, and the economic forces of the weight loss industry. Plus, she’s suggesting something wicked radical — part of what enrages folks about a fat woman’s body is that [...]
A follow-up to For the Love of Letters, Samara O’Shea’s Note to Self: On Keeping a Journal and Other Dangerous Pursuits describes her experiences as a chronic journaler, and argues passionately for the usefulness of journaling in one’s journey towards self-discovery. In both, she argues for a brief return to solitude, the very thing William Deresiewicz argues we’ve lost in “The Disadvantages of an Elite [...]
