Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia

Abstract

Given that Dr. Sabrina Strings is a sociologist who has held a joint appointment with the Berkeley School of Public Health, it is not surprising that her book Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia should open with a headline from a New York Times article proclaiming that many New Yorkers are killing themselves through their poor eating habits, and that their poor health is a threat to the nation. The surprise for unsuspecting readers is that the article, from 1894, concerns itself not with fatness but with self-starvation in pursuit of fashionable thinness. From there, Strings takes us on a fascinating journey from the Renaissance to the present in a detailed historical analysis of the rise of Western pro-thin anti-fat attitudes. The stated aim of book is to find and trace the roots of these biases by identifying key figures who played a role in creating and promoting them. The gap Strings seeks to address is not quite as wide as she thinks (fat studies scholars have been working for years to fill it), but Strings goes deeper, includes unexpected elements, and painstakingly uncovers and traces the human connections and influence that have shaped Western beauty ideals and linked them firmly to white supremacist ideologies.