“Honestly, I’m always thinking ’bout my weight,” sings British pop star of the moment Charli XCX on “Rewind,” a song from her chart-dominating album of summer, Brat. And, really, aren’t we all? It appears so—at least according to this year’s buzziest nonfiction releases, many of which explore weight stigma and eating disorders and how they are entrenched and encouraged in our culture.
Most spectacular was Emmeline Clein’s lyrical, deeply researched essay collection, Dead Weight, which followed philosopher Kate Manne’s siege on fat-phobia, Unshrinking. The latest in this growing canon are Vogue culture writer Emma Specter’s More, Please, a memoir out this week about her binge-eating disorder and changing relationship to weight, and Maintenance Phase, Aubrey Gordon’s history of the weight-loss and wellness industries, publishing later this year. (Full disclosure: Specter is the daughter of AIR MAIL Co-Editor Alessandra Stanley.)
