Here’s three blog related books I plan to read. They all look great. Catherine might even organize one as a group book review, which I’ve enjoyed participating in in the past.
Are there any other feminist fitness books in your life this new year? Share in the comments.
“You Just Need to Lose Weight” and 19 Other Myths About Fat People by Aubrey Gordon
Discussed here on Maintenance Phase
“The pushback that shows up in conversations about fat justice takes exceedingly predicable form. Losing weight is easy—calories in, calories out. Fat people are unhealthy. We’re in the midst of an obesity epidemic. Fat acceptance “glorifies obesity.” The BMI is an objective measure of size and health. Yet, these myths are as readily debunked as they are pervasive. In “You Just Need to Lose Weight,” Aubrey Gordon equips readers with the facts and figures to reframe myths about fatness in order to dismantle the anti-fat bias ingrained in how we think about and treat fat people. Bringing her dozen years of community organizing and training to bear, Gordon shares the rhetorical approaches she and other organizers employ to not only counter these pernicious myths, but to dismantle the anti-fat bias that so often underpin them. As conversations about fat acceptance and fat justice continue to grow, “You Just Need to Lose Weight” will be essential to ensure that those conversations are informed, effective, and grounded in both research and history.”
“What would it be like to live in a well-rested world? Far too many of us have claimed productivity as the cornerstone of success. Brainwashed by capitalism, we subject our bodies and minds to work at an unrealistic, damaging, and machine‑level pace –– feeding into the same engine that enslaved millions into brutal labor for its own relentless benefit. In Rest Is Resistance, Tricia Hersey, aka the Nap Bishop, casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted. Our worth does not reside in how much we produce, especially not for a system that exploits and dehumanizes us. Rest, in its simplest form, becomes an act of resistance and a reclaiming of power because it asserts our most basic humanity. We are enough. The systems cannot have us. Rest Is Resistance is rooted in spiritual energy and centered in Black liberation, womanism, somatics, and Afrofuturism. With captivating storytelling and practical advice, all delivered in Hersey’s lyrical voice and informed by her deep experience in theology, activism, and performance art, Rest Is Resistance is a call to action, a battle cry, a field guide, and a manifesto for all of us who are sleep deprived, searching for justice, and longing to be liberated from the oppressive grip of Grind Culture.”
“For Petrzela, fitness is a social justice issue. She argues that the fight for a more equitable exercise culture will be won only by revolutionizing fitness culture at its core, making it truly inclusive for all bodies in a way it has never been. Examining venues from the stage of the World’s Fair and Muscle Beach to fat farms, feminist health clinics, radical and evangelical college campuses, yoga retreats, gleaming health clubs, school gymnasiums, and many more, Fit Nation is a revealing history that shows fitness to be not just a matter of physical health but of what it means to be an American.”
No books to promote here, but I wanted to comment on the subject of rest. My father ran our family business. I followed him & am now retired, so this goes back many decades. He was very early to bring computers into the business world – found them fascinating, had a whole room occupied by one in the early 1960s in our rather small business (less than 100 people). One of the things that worried him was what people would have to do – and be compensated for – as computers took over more and more of the jobs we had paid for historically. Anyone else old enough to remember The Jetsons? Their main problem seemed to be getting the robots to do their work. With that in mind, I find it particularly ironic that ours is the world in which people work crazy hours. I once rode bikes with a woman who worked for a big tech company. Others envied her for the amenities: on site food, laundry services, ping pong tables…she said, they’re only there because you never get to go home.
My father? He introduced a sabbatical-type program in 1970 – get a bonus, don’t feel you have to quit to do one really special thing, take a few months & the money & do it now! A four day work week in 1972 – optional – and an elimination of work hours & rules a couple of years later. Most work was done in small local offices with no managers on site. By the time I took over, most people worked pretty regular hours, but there were a few who wanted to be free for something in the morning or afternoon, and work into the evening. Or other variations on the ordinary workday. As long as they could work it out with the others in their office, no problem. If someone had a family emergency, others leapt in to cover with no problem, no complaints (including people from other offices who learned of it). It was great for us -no one wanted to leave so we ended up with a wonderful group of experienced and intelligent people. But I do wish with all my heart that more would recognize the value in treating adults as adults, and not setting up an internally competitive workplace where employees feel they have to outdo the guy at the next desk.