Book Review: Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud

Author: Anne Helen Petersen
Publication Date: June 20, 2017
Publisher: Plume Books

From celebrity gossip expert and BuzzFeed culture writer Anne Helen Petersen comes an accessible, analytical look at how female celebrities are pushing boundaries of what it means to be an acceptable woman.

You know the type: the woman who won't shut up, who's too brazen, too opinionated, too much. She's the unruly woman, and she embodies one of the most provocative and powerful forms of womanhood today. In Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud, Anne Helen Petersen uses the lens of unruliness to explore the ascension of pop culture powerhouses like Lena Dunham, Nicki Minaj, and Kim Kardashian, exploring why the public loves to love (and hate) these controversial figures. With its brisk, incisive analysis, Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud will be a conversation-starting book on what makes and breaks celebrity today.

It would have to rattle the presumptions of patriarchy, challenge the norms of femininity, occupy the heart of unruliness. It would have to be the sort of gesture, argument, and gut punch that’s historically come from an incredibly rare, and all the more valuable, sort of female celebrity. A woman, in other words, like Madonna.

I spent the bulk of my adolescent life internalizing the fact that girls who crossed that invisible line would become pariahs: excised from their communities and families, unable to find work or companionship.

It’s one thing to admire such abrasiveness and disrespect for the status quo in someone else; it’s quite another to take that risk in one’s own life.

My views on this book are very conflicting and opinionated, so I am stating that up front. This book is essentially about a handful of women that are defying what it means to be “accepted” and “adored” as the model woman in society. Each chapter promotes a different woman who is “too” something – too fat, too slutty, too strong, etc. While I love the way that the chapters are setup, I do not love every woman that this book promotes. Some of the women mentioned, like Melissa McCarthy, who is often criticized for being “too fat”, are women I can really hang my hat on. I love what she stands for and how she has defied all odds and made herself a successful movie star despite her body type. However, some of the women promoted in this book are not women that I want to follow in the quest to defy societal standards set for women. Women like Kim Kardashian are not women I want to see leading the battlefront in a fight for women’s rights.

 

However, that is solely my opinion and everyone is entitled to one. The book is expertly written and the research Petersen conducted in evident in each chapter as she catalogs each of these women and their lives. Each chapter has a vibrant spirit about it and the author’s voice absolutely shines through. The only issue that I had with the author was the fact that she labeled herself as the typical red-blooded American woman: white, straight, college educated, etc. It was hard for me to get behind someone who was pushing so harshly for a change in the way women are viewed, but it didn’t seem to me that she was adding to the fight – just writing about it. Again, this is just my view on the matter. Her writing was superb and very easy to follow and I would love to read more from this author.

 

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Plume in exchange for my honest review***