Skinny Bitch: helping veganism, or giving it a bad name?

Sipping on a smoothie over books, I overheard a giddy student exclaiming to her friends--and inserting "like" between every other word--how the book Skinny Bitch "changed her life" and prompted her to veganism.

My first thought was that it is great that this pop culture cookbook can inspire veganism. But then I remembered why I refused to purchase the book.

While it remains factual and undisputed that a properly-enacted vegan lifestyle is optimal for physical wellness, and that a list of ingredients is a list of ingredients no matter what, the framing of the book is what really irks me.

Skinny Bitch. First of all, veganism is not about being skinny. Being healthy is not about being skinny. What our culture hails as "skinny" is generally unhealthy, except for a certain genetic percentage. This is a "diet" book...and not diet as in dietary lifestyle. It is a diet book as in go-on-a-diet-you-fat-ass...and that sort of mentality is never healthy.

I am not a vegan because I am aspiring toward skinniness. Actually, veganism takes my focus off of weight and re-directs it toward health. Weight and health are DIFFERENT, although at times they may have certain correlations. It irritates me that veganism catches a huge wind when it is packaged toward WOMEN, and not only that, exploding with sexist language and connotations.

Why is it called Skinny Bitch? Because when you are a skinny woman, you are culturally privileged and therefore, in generalized social terms, "better" than other "non-skinny" women...and therefore entitled to your bitchiness. You are also a bitch because other "non-skinny" women are jealous of your weight, and whisper bitch behind your back. This title taps into the correlations between the Three W's: women, weight, and worth. It also speaks volumes to the division and competition among women to be the envied, skinny bitch.

I won't even get into why women are divided and compete with one another--because this is how they win the big heterosexual male and access resources/social privilege/"fulfillment"--but will offer my closing statement that such loaded social packaging turns me off to Skinny Bitch, and although it has successfully spread veganism and vegan-awareness...it is only indicative of female oppression, and its praise makes me cringe.