"With inimitable good humor, vulnerability, and boundless charm, Lindy boldly shares how to survive in a world where not all stories are created equal and not all bodies are treated with equal respect, and how to weather hatred, loneliness, harassment, and loss--and walk away laughing."
Usually, I try to write my own summary, but this time, I felt like that quote summed it up. This series of essays by writer Lindy West is a narration of her life, as well as her insights into what culture expects from women. With the expectation that girls should be as small, compliant and quiet as possible, as a child, Lindy knew she'd never fit that mold. She didn't, and she still doesn't, and she's unapologetic. And I like that.
I really loved some of the chapters, like the one about her writing for The Stranger, and how she and Dan Savage got into it over what she saw as Dan's writing that was fat-shaming. I felt like Lindy made some awesome points about how society seems people who are fat, and how people leap to make judgments about them. She says, "However, it is easier to mock and deride individual fat people than to fix food deserts, school lunches, corn subsidies, inadequate or nonexistent public transportation, unsafe sidewalks and parks, healthcare, mental healthcare, the minimum wage, and your own insecurities." (emphasis mine) I put my sticky note flags in a bunch of places in that chapter.
Do I agree with every single thing she says? No (and seriously, I never agree with every single thing that anyone says. It's just not possible). However, I feel she makes a bunch of valid points, and totally calls out a bunch of things that I think are important to call out. And talk about. And hey, maybe be loud about.
What I really mean to say, after reading this book, is that I feel like I'd want Lindy West as a friend. I kept looking at her author photo on the book jacket and thinking that she looks like a total badass. Maybe I should send her some cupcakes. Or some wine. Maybe both. Reading her book made me laugh out loud, but also silently (and in my own head), raise a fist in a heck yeah! gesture a couple of times. I'm going to buy a copy of this book for myself (shocking, since I rarely buy books, since I'm surrounding by them at the library). Seriously also considering buying a few extras, so I can give them to some people I know (including a few in my own family).
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