Weightless

Making Space for My Resilient Body and Soul

De: Evette Dionne

Narrado por: Evette Dionne

A poignant and ruthlessly honest journey through cultural expectations of size, race, and gender—and toward a brighter future—from National Book Award nominee Evette Dionne

My body has not betrayed me; it has continued rebounding against all odds. It is a body that others map their expectations on, but it has never let me down.

In this insightful, funny, and whip-smart book, acclaimed writer Evette Dionne explores the minefields fat Black women are forced to navigate in the course of everyday life. From her early experiences of harassment to adolescent self-discovery in internet chatrooms to a diagnosis of heart failure at age twenty-nine, Dionne tracks her relationships with friendship, sex, motherhood, agoraphobia, health, pop culture, and self-image.

Along the way, she lifts back the curtain to reveal the subtle, insidious forms of surveillance and control levied at fat women: At the doctor’s office, where any health ailment is treated with a directive to lose weight. On dating sites, where larger bodies are rejected or fetishized. On TV, where fat characters are asexual comedic relief. But Dionne’s unflinching account of our deeply held prejudices is matched by her fierce belief in the power of self-love.

An unmissable portrait of a woman on a journey toward understanding our society and herself, Weightless holds up a mirror to the world we live in and asks us to imagine the future we deserve.

©2022 Evette Dionne (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

Profound work!

Informative, enraging, and invigorating read. Evonne is a true story teller and gift. A must read!

Great performance, interesting story

The book is really well written. The performance was great. The author strung words together in an accessible way and the performance was engaging. However, I personally found the content to be more pandering than helpful. Many of the examples showcase examples of misunderstandings pushed to their extreme.

At first, I assessed this story to be one of an overly sensitive person who chose time and time again to indulge cognitive dissonances. By the middle of the book, I understood that there was growth and she handled the challenges the best she knew how.

That being said, the author employs literally every single talking point from the fat acceptance playlist:
- Health at every size
- Doctors needing to do better (which some do)
- The world is fat fobic
- refusing to take accountability

The book helps the reader to get a better understanding of those who "choose to live in a larger body" (her words not mine). "Weightless" will, no doubt, resonate with many, but will definitely be a challenging listen for others. For some, it will require an open mind and some empathy, but I think it's well worth the time.

Fantastic

Weightless is an amazing, honest, vulnerable look into a topic that deserves much more attention in the larger realm of discussion regarding how we view and treat larger bodies. I am grateful for the author’s candor and willingness to share so much of her journey.