Reviews for A Student's Textbook in the History of Education

The average rating for A Student's Textbook in the History of Education based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-10-20 00:00:00 Jesus Rios poulton is a journalist whose career was fucked over by her weight and seeming inability to conform to a particular code of beauty-body conduct. as someone who identifies with the endless self-torment of feeling and/or fearing fat, this book gave me a lot of good info. no fat chicks sheds light on the absurdity of fat-phobic and fat-hating culture. my only real let-down with this book is poulton's inability to expand her critique beyond a very narrow focus: she argues primarily for acceptance of fat "people"(primarily white women) by the dominant culture. it is really a shame that she cannot turn it around to realise that the dominant culture is bullshit, and instead of throwing our lot in with those who would oppress us, we should recognise where truer allies are to be found. poulton does not leave behind the eyes of a upward-clawing, white, north american affluent for one minute. i kind of recognised the analytical shortcomings and tried to get on with the book. despite limitations i think this is a rad read: a solid starter for examining our prejudices against body types. it blows me away what some people will do to keep themselves on top and keep others down. it was amazing to finally get it through my thick skull that bodies are not endlessly mailable, and fat is normal. heck, skinny peeps should give more respect: we could kick their asses!

Review # 2 was written on 2015-02-11 00:00:00 Tracey Mackay Poulton is awesome. I respect her ability to clearly reveal the "billion dollar brainwash" as the ugly, transparent, sad, and incomprehensibly successful ploy that is. However, the book is so much a fusion of her (perfectly reasonable) personal outrage and her thorough research, that it is sometimes hard to separate fact from angry sarcasm. And while her personal experience serves as a compelling lens through which to view the evil skinny=healthy=beautiful=rich=happy myth, it also leads her to overlook the intersections of fatphobia with other types of systematic oppression to the point where she simplifies racism and poverty and misogyny to suggest that body-hate is the only type of discrimination left for us to tackle. I'm on the search now for current material about body-acceptance that is more inclusive with a clearer distinction between narrative and fact-based research. Suggestions?