Book Review: Dietland by Sarai Walker
The first meeting of the Woman Up Wellness Book Club book took place in August! I started this as a fun way for women in my private Facebook group to connect with each other and have discussions related to food freedom, self care, and well being. Since it is summer, we decided to kick things off with a page-turning, fictional novel, Dietland by Sarai Walker. As described on the author’s website, “Dietland is a bold, original, and funny debut novel that takes on the beauty industry, gender inequality, and our weight loss obsession—from the inside out, and with fists flying.” Read on for my review and insights from the book.
Plot Summary
Alicia "Plum" Kettle is 300 pounds and has been fighting against her body her whole life. She started dieting when she was just a girl, sneaking copies home of weight loss program materials from her friend’s house. Now 30 years old, after years of calorie counting and restriction, she is planning to get bariatric surgery. She desperately wants to be thin. She believes this will allow her to stop hiding in the background and start living the life she desires- a life with a job she loves, an adoring boyfriend, a group of close friends, and no more judgement. But before the surgery takes place, Plum is drawn into Calliope House, a feminist collective, working to turn the beauty-industrial complex on its head and reveal the damage it is causing to women mentally and physically.
Key Issues and Insights
Diets and Restriction: In her attempts to lose weight, Plum tried to avoid “bad” foods and when she broke one of the “rules” she experienced feelings of guilt and shame. She viewed herself as a failure, but it was the diet that failed - not Plum. Diets just do not work. They pit you against your own biology and keep you in an endless restrict-binge cycle. No matter how much will power you have, after hours of restricting, your body will ultimately kick into survival mode and crave food it can break down fast (read: 🧁 🍪 🥯🍕). A perfect example of this is when Plum scarfed down pocketfuls of macaroons after following a meal plan that restricted her to fewer than 1,000 calories a day. Cravings are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign that your body needs something.
Body and Fat Shaming: From a young age, women are taught that looks are valued more than character; that you should be envied by other women and desired by men. This is a by-product of the patriarchy. Because of it, Plum spent years hoping to go unnoticed, trying to shrink her body to what she perceived would be acceptable to others. With the help of the women of Calliope House, Plum’s eyes are opened to the lies perpetuated by society, and she discovers that her worth has nothing to do with her appearance. She now has a new purpose in life, to smash the patriarchy. She does this inwardly by listening to her own senses about what to eat and wear. She does this outwardly by sharing these truths with young woman and calling people out when they try to shame her body. When she is insulted by a bike courier while walking down the sidewalk, she stands directly in front of him and asks “Do you think you are funny?” He replies, “Move it, lard-ass.” But she didn’t move. She wedged his bike tires between her knees and asked the question again. The old Plum would have apologized for her existence, but the new Plum is not afraid to fight for herself!
Rape Culture: Intertwined with Plum’s story, is a sub-plot that addresses rape culture. This is a culture in which institutional structures blame the survivors (victims) and protect aggressors, and sexual violence against women is viewed as the norm. In this story-line, a vigilante group known as Jennifer kidnaps and kills rapists that were never convicted or even prosecuted for their crimes. Did the actions of Jennifer seem extreme to you? What about how the assault on United States Army private Shonda Brown was covered up as a suicide or how Luz, who was only 12-years old, was shamed for how she dressed? What emotions does that bring up? Did that seem extreme as well? It should. Murder incites shock and appall and the public is quick to assign guilt to the murderer but sexual violence against women does not receive the same response. This is a product of rape culture. You can channel the rage of Jennifer to combat rape culture by speaking out when you hear someone trivializing rape and by personally avoiding language that degrades women.
Favorite Quotes:
My goal isn’t to look fuckable. The look I want is Don’t fuck with me.
There was a phantom woman in my mind that I was comparing myself to, and I had to force her from the dressing room. When she was gone, I looked at my body, the body that had kept me alive for nearly thirty years, without any serious health problems, the body that had taken me where I needed to go and protected me. I had never appreciated or loved the body that had done so much for me. I had thought of it as my enemy, as nothing more than a shell that enclosed my real self, but it wasn’t a shell. The body was me. This is your real life. You’re already living it. I removed the clothes and stood naked before the mirrors, turning this way and that. I was round and cute in a way I’d never seen before.
People had always insulted me by calling me fat, but they couldn’t hurt me that way, not anymore. I was fat, and if I no longer saw it as a bad thing, then the weapon they had used against me lost its power. I was wearing bright colors, refusing to apologize for my size. The dress made me feel defiant. For the first time, I didn’t mind taking up space.
Final Thoughts
I love this book, not because it is a perfect piece of literature, but because it is not afraid to call out society on issues of diet culture, body image, beauty standards, and misogyny. One of the most incredible aspects of the book is that it was published in 2015, two years before the #MeToo movement became mainstream. Perhaps, Walker’s anger bubbled to the surface sooner because of the added judgement that fat people face. As Plum explains it:“Because I’m fat, I know how horrible everyone is. I see a different side of humanity. Those guys I went on the blind dates with treated me like I was subhuman. If I were thin and pretty, they would have shown me a different side, a fake one, but since I look like this, I know what they’re truly like.” This perspective, reminds me of the responsibility that people in thin bodies, including myself, have to check that privilege and then do the work to create a new culture where that privilege does not exist.
If you need help regaining trust with your body, listening to your cravings, and claiming your space in the world, it would be my honor to go on that journey with you. Send me an e-mail. I would love to chat with you.
