Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman
Each woman in this book is a workaholic and a perfectionist, in part because anything less than that amount of labor and precise attention to detail could be her downfall. Unruliness can be liberating, but within our current cultural climate, it is also endlessly exhausting.
Anne Helen Petersen • Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman
some point, every single one of these women has “failed”—or, perhaps more generously, presented inconsistencies—in her resistance. Those moments shouldn’t be read as failures, however, so much as testaments to the sheer tenacity of the ideologies of femininity that shame, alienate, and expel those who refuse them.
Anne Helen Petersen • Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman
something about each of the women in this book has permitted her not only to exist, but also to obtain and wield power within spheres dominated by men.
Anne Helen Petersen • Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman
But that’s the point: the audience sees Hannah’s breasts as the world sees Hannah’s breasts: imperfect, inappropriate, unsexy. But Hannah, especially Hannah-on-coke, doesn’t see her body the way the world does: to her, the mesh shirt and her loose breasts are deliciously sexy; her look could not be more perfect; she conceives of herself as an immac
... See moreAnne Helen Petersen • Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman
As Weiner puts it, “Any woman who ever put pen to paper, or finger to laptop, has had to deal with sexism, discrimination and double standards, has had to fight harder than a man to get published, to get noticed, to get reviewed, to get profiled. I’m not saying that we all need to hold hands and sing Kumbaya, but I wish that there was some recognit
... See moreAnne Helen Petersen • Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman
But after attending the reunion, and feeling none of the elitism or snobbery she’d expected, Weiner admitted that she might be mapping her own insecurity onto others: “The overall pleasant evening has led me to the painful realization that I’ve spent 15 years insisting that books like mine deserve a place on the shelf, and maybe I don’t entirely be
... See moreAnne Helen Petersen • Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman
It’s one thing to argue that you belong—it’s another thing to actually believe it.
Anne Helen Petersen • Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman
few things enrage, confuse, and repulse audiences more than the suggestion that the primary visual purpose of a woman’s body is not the pleasure of men.
Anne Helen Petersen • Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman
The toned body, after all, requires even more work than the skinny one: it’s about constant self-improvement. And while women can and do take real enjoyment from the act of exercise, the maintenance of that body requires an incredible amount of time and labor—psychological and physical.