#dietland

What in the Modelland fuckery.

Plum Kettle does her best not to be noticed, because when you’re fat, to be noticed is to be judged. She's biding her time until her weight-loss surgery.

Then, when a mysterious woman starts following her, Plum finds herself falling down a rabbit hole and into an underground community of women who live life on their own terms. At the same time, a dangerous guerrilla group called “Jennifer” begins to terrorize a world that mistreats women, and as Plum grapples with her personal struggles, she becomes entangled in a sinister plot.

There is A LOT to say about this story and I don't know if I'll be able to discuss everything. On the surface, this was a challenging (and real) depiction of diet culture. There is raw pain that I believe many of us can relate to on some level while at the same time coated in dark satirical humor. Plum is a very honest character who is shaped by her surroundings while searching for her ideal place in a manmade society, emphasis on the man part.

As someone who is also recovering from their own eating disorder, I could relate very much to Plum's struggles.

As the story continues, we're introduced to a much larger picture that many people still refuse to ignore. This idea of becoming thin to fit in stems becomes a question of autonomy and while we all deserve the right to have autonomy, the system at large thinks otherwise. Which then exploded into acts of defiance and anger, turning Plum into an almost cathartic representation of what some are holding back. Some say that they weren't a fan of this change in Plum as she goes on a feminist rampage, but I disagree.

The story takes a lot of time to hammer in the Jennifer subplot which felt a bit jarring at times since the themes surrounding it were VERY difficult to read about. They're still very real and I'm glad they were discussed, but some trigger/content warnings would've been appreciated.