Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness Free Audiobook Download by Da'shaun L. Harrison

Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness is an audiobook by Da'shaun L. Harrison that seeks to define Black fat bodies, and the process and impact of anti-fat biases on Black people. He exposes how in this country's racist past and present, obesity has been weaponized as a way to oppress and discipline oppressed groups including African Americans. One example he uses is the use of "Healthy Eating" as a marketing tool against women and the poor who are considered most vulnerable when it comes to "eating bad." Harrison argues that anti-fat attitudes in the United States are intrinsically linked with anti-Black racism.

The struggles of African Americans to lose weight are not new. We have been fighting this battle since the early twentieth century, where dieting became a way to cope with our segregation, poverty and lack of access to healthy food. The loss of weight became a coping mechanism for recovering from slavery, keeping us from being fat-shamed and viewed as lazy or unfit for work.

This audiobook was not just a story of anti-fatness, but it was also a story of anti-blackness. The narrator did an amazing job with the narration, and there were many events that could have been lost or forgotten in no time.

I had never seen a black man, woman, or child referred to as "fat" until I was in my twenties and discovered the diet industry. The diet industry is one of the most powerful forces in American culture, not just for weight loss but for the expression of a particularly white and industrially-capitalist sort of American individualism. In "Belly of the Beast," Da'shaun L. Harrison explores anti-fatness as a form of anti-blackness in which these individuals are seen as lazy and profiteering, called out on their power structures while at the same time being cast as victims.

In the book, Harrison discusses how in America, we have been conditioned to equate fatness with blackness. He goes on to talk about the systematic way that African Americans have been subjected to larger bodies as a result of white superiority. A major example of this is the long-standing stereotype of black women being thick. They are seen as fat and unattractive for their weight and large body frame because they act against cultural norms created by white society.

Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da'shaun L. Harrison is an audiobook that narrates a history of black fatness. This book discusses the ways in which fat bodies have been negatively perceived within institutional white spaces and how those negative perceptions are associated with the historical context of American slavery.