FEMINIST COMIC BOOK MEMOIRS: SHRINK: Story of a Fat Girl & BALD

SHRINK: Story of a Fat Girl
RACHEL M. THOMAS
Graphic Mundi
$24.95 trade paper, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Derided by her high-school peers for being overweight, Rachel finally found a sense of purpose and belonging in a promising career as an EMT—that is, until her body got in the way.

Shrink is a work of graphic medicine that depicts the emotional and physical realities of inhabiting a large body in a world that is constantly warning about the medical and social dangers of being “too fat.” This smart and candid book challenges the idea that weight loss is the only path for a fat person and encourages the reader to question the prevailing cultural and medical discourse about fat bodies.

Seamlessly weaving the most current research on the fatness debate with her own experiences of living in a fat body, Thomas lays bare society’s obsession with size and advocates for each of us to push back on body weight bias and determine what’s right for our own health and well-being, both physical and mental.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: I spent a lot of my life "fat" and had to endure much verbal abuse for it.

The struggles in this graphic memoir were all too familiar to me, and I do not mean the ones about dieting.

I mean the comments...whether well-intentioned or just meant to be slyly insulting in that un-call-out-able way so many passive-aggressive or simply unpleasant people enjoy so much...that freely pepper even the simplest conversations. I mean the looks of horror or disgust aimed one's way by strangers. I mean the earnest, ill-informed "advice" about eating from medical professionals, or goddesses please protect us from such malevolence, dietitians *shudder* with their irrelevant portion-control mantra.

I mean the perpetrators of The Whale. I mean you, every time you've said something off-handedly about how big a celebrity has gotten, and what a shame it is because they were so hot before. Or how funny it was that time Courteney Cox put on a fat suit to be young, fat, unattractive Monica on Friends.

Stop it. If you need a reason (other than not being a jerk), read Rachel's story. She lived it, and came out of the experience with a fine education, a clear eye, and an academic career about social issues like this. If a young giftee of yours, especially but not exclusively a girl of a vulnerable age, is struggling with weight as a social issue, this is a good resource to offer; not a gift, unless specifically requested, though.

Even if it's just a sensitization exercise for you, or another person in your young soul's ambit, it's a very worthwhile gift to share with them.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


BALD
TEREZA ČECHOVÁ (illus. Štepánka Jislová; tr. Martha Kuhlman with the author)
Graphic Mundi
$21.95 trade paper, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Tereza never thought she would go bald before her boyfriend did. She couldn’t imagine being unable to sweep her hair up in a ponytail or to style it in other ways. But when she lost all her hair in just a couple of months due to alopecia, her perspective on relationships and work—and above all, herself—radically changed.

Navigating the particular trauma of female hair loss, Tereza comes to terms with her new reality with humor and self-reflection in this prize-winning graphic memoir featuring eye-catching art by Štěpánka Jislová.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Generations ago, I knew a young woman from Puerto Rico who, during the year we were acquainted, steadily lost her hair to alopecia. It was the first time I'd every heard of the condition. As the weeks went by, I'd stop in the bodega and chat while buying the little thises and thatses one always needs but aren't important enough to trek to the biffer, cheaper store to get...plus it was a chance to catch up on the happenings.


Mostly to get an earful from my young friend about how the people in the neighborhood were horrible to her, accusing her of having ringworm, mange, and...given the time, this made some sense...AIDS. Those were mean and awful things to say. They made her angry.

What hurt her was her family calling her "pelón"..."hairy guy"...and laughing about it. I was appalled, but felt unable to do anything but be blandly comforting of tone, and listen to her. In the end, she bought a wig and got a new job, and we lost contact.

I will never, ever stop regretting I didn't say to her then what I say on a daily basis to my male-pattern baldness: "It's just hair."

It's only a big emotional deal because people around you make it one. Tereza takes us on a very, very pink-tinted trip with her as she learns the realities of hair loss from alopecia, which are interesring to me; what will mostly interest others, I suspect, is the shocking amount of emphasis placed by others on women's hair.

Want to radicalize your young feminist? Hand over this startling deep meditation on how effectively women are indoctrinated into their value being that of face. And hair. No ruse is more effective than drilling into a young woman that her role is to be beautiful, and woe betide her if she falls short. The stupidity of this offends me, but it should infuriate all of us.