Fat Girl on a Plane
Fat Girl on a Plane targets the modern-day issue of fat-shaming. The main character, Cookie, ironically named after a dessert, has weight issues and a supermodel mother who often leaves her with her grandma. Because of her work at a fashion blog, she gets an opportunity to attend an event where she can apply for a scholarship and show off her fashion portfolio. However, when she arrives in New York to pitch her portfolio, she finds her slot has been replaced by the fashion blog’s boss’s daughter, who is skinny and extremely rich, and much more “acceptable” in the fashion industry compared to 330-pound Cookie. After experiencing many realistic instances of fat-shaming prejudice, Cookie Vonn vows to lose weight and become recognized.
Flash forward, where Cookie is skinny after more than a year in a NutriNation plan. She gets the offer of a lifetime when she is allowed to work with Gareth Miller, an icon in fashion design, and eventually becomes his girlfriend. Because Cookie used to be plus-size, she wants to design plus-size fashion because she can sympathize for them and feel that they are under-represented. Unfortunately, because she is now skinny, it is difficult for overweight people to believe her. Ultimately, she realizes that her “perfect” skinny life isn’t exactly what she wanted.
Fat Girl on a Plane really does a good job embodying the struggles that overweight people have to go through on a daily basis. The author, Kelly deVos, describes Cookie’s ordeals realistically, rather than exaggerating the stories. I enjoyed reading her ordeals, which showcased Cookie’s likeable personality, and the inevitable change of her personality as she became skinnier. However, the book was a little confusing to understand, especially when I first started reading it. Fat Girl on a Plane constantly interchanges with a “fat” version of Cookie and a “skinny” version of Cookie, with each chapter either labeled “fat” or “skinny,” along with a day number that marks the days before or since the beginning of her NutriNation plans.
Although Cookie is a well-crafted multi-dimensional character, the characters that surround her seem a little one-dimensional. Her mother is always portrayed as an “antagonist” of sorts, always leaving Cookie with her grandmother, who isn’t the nurturing figure that Cookie needs, possibly leading to her weight struggles in the first place. Although Gareth Miller is 16 years older, “skinny” Cookie gets into a relationship with him, which in my opinion takes away from the overall message of the book. I also felt a little uncomfortable at times when the characters in the book demonstrated instances of despicable fat-shaming, and although I understand that Fat Girl on a Plane is trying to shed light on a sensitive topic, I feel that deVos didn’t do as good of a job as she could have.
Honestly, I would only give this book 3.5 stars. Although deVos represents “fat” Cookie well, she doesn’t articulate the consequences of fat shaming and constructs Cookie’s “skinny” self as less mature version of her old self. For me, Fat Girl on a Plane tries to address societal issues surrounding the stigma of being “fat,” but falls short because it shows losing weight as a seemingly easy task by skipping over Cookie’s weight loss timeline and just showing the “before and after” results. Because this is a sensitive topic, I wouldn’t stay away from reading this book, this is merely my opinion of Fat Girl on a Plane.
I think you focused on a lot of important topics about body image in this blog post. It's an interesting topic because weight loss and fat-shaming are both very relevant in today's society, and are both very complex issues. I appreciated that you could acknowledge both where this book succeeded and failed in what seemed like a very calm and unbiased manner. I've read books with a similar structure to how you've described this one and could see how they could be tricky to navigate at first. Overall good work with this post.
ReplyDeleteThis book is very relevant when it comes to modern day societal issues being faced by many, and I think that makes your honest opinion of it all the more valid. I agree with your stance on the fat shaming elements of the book and the authors' shortcomings-having had read the book myself. I think you did a great job being open about your opinions of the book and on this blog post as a whole!
ReplyDeleteThis book sheds light on an issue that is prevalent in society, however, I appreciate you giving an honest opinion on it. I agree with what you said about the book's shortcomings. Going from 330 pounds to being skinny is a tremendous journey. The fact that the book only touches on her transformation makes it seem like losing that much weight is realistic, and even easy. It makes it seem as if a diet plan will guarantee skinniness, and might encourage some people who will do anything to have a "perfect" body. I think the author could have strengthened her point if she had described Cookie's journey to becoming skinny, emphasizing the hardships she had to deal with and how it impacted her emotionally. However, the authors intentions are good ones, and I am glad that she is spreading a message on judging people solely by appearance.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate how you recognized the good aspects of the book and explained them thoroughly. Explicating how the book targets the modern-day issue of fat shaming was extremely helpful, as it helped me determine what the book was about. I also like how you criticized the book. Not every book are written the same, and you explaining how it was not the best was useful.
ReplyDeleteYou did a good job of giving a summary of the book and also talking about other things surrounding the book's topic. I like how you criticized the author and gave the book an honest review. I agree with your point about how the book should go over the transformation from "fat" to "skinny" because, although I have never been 330 pounds myself, I know how difficult it is to make that transition. Overall, I enjoyed reading your blog post!
ReplyDeleteYour review was very interesting. I think that the fact that you thought it was an important topic to talk about but also not a great book was especially interesting. I think many books are considered good just because they are unique and address important issues even though they may be poorly written or have shallow characters. Nice post!
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