FEMINIST CRITICISM: My Big Fat Manifesto by Susan Vaught

Feminist literary criticism is literary criticism informed by feminist theory, or by the politics of feminism more broadly. Its history has been broad and varied, from classic works of nineteenth-century women authors such as George Eliot and Margaret Fuller to cutting-edge theoretical work in women's studies and gender studies by "third-wave" authors. In the most general and simple terms, feminist literary criticism before the 1970s—in the first and second waves of feminism—was concerned with the politics of women's authorship and the representation of women's condition within literature.

(from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_criticism)


The Story:

Jamie is a senior in high school and, like so many of her peers, doing too much. Unlike so many of her friends, she is enormously, irreversibly, sometimes angrily (and occasionally delightedly) overweight. Her most immediate need is a scholarship to college, so she writes an explosive and controversial column every week in the school paper about being fat. Soon, Jamie finds herself fighting for her rights as a very fat girl - and not quietly. As her column raises all kinds of public questions, so too must Jamie find her own private way in the world, with love popping up in an unexpected place, and satisfaction in her size losing ground to real frustration.
Tapping into her own experience with losing weight, her training as a psychotherapist, and the current fascination in the media with teens trying drastic weight-loss measures, Susan Vaught writes searing and hilarious prose that will grip readers while asking the most profound questions about life.

(from:http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/v/susan-vaught/my-big-fat-manifesto.htm)





The Criticism:

First of all the cover is just plainly cool. I mean c'mon it's an upside down ice cream. OK... enough of that.
The story talks about a fat girl in a society where being so is seen as socially unacceptable. In our culture being fat is like the worst thing that could happen especially if you're a girl.
Basically, it shows the struggles of a fat girl to be accepted socially and break away from the suppression of other people.
The novel also highlights how a girl rises above the criticizing eyes of others.