| Contents |
Lady Kluck -- Bones -- Are you there, Margaret? It's me, a person who is not a complete freak -- How to stop being shy in eighteen easy steps -- When life gives you lemons -- You're so brave for wearing clothes and not hating yourself! -- The red tent -- Hello, I am fat -- Why fat lady so mean to baby men? -- Strong people fighting against the elements -- The day I didn't fit -- Chuckletown, USA, population: jokes -- Death wish -- It's about free speech, it's not about hating women -- The tree -- The end -- The beginning -- Slaying the troll -- Abortion is normal, it's okay to be fat, and women don't have to be nice to you. |
| Abstract |
"Coming of age in a culture that demands women be as small, quiet, and compliant as possible--like a porcelain dove that will also have sex with you--writer and humorist Lindy West quickly discovered that she was anything but. From a painfully shy childhood in which she tried, unsuccessfully, to hide her big body and even bigger opinions; to her public war with stand-up comedians over rape jokes; to her struggle to convince herself, and then the world, that fat people have value; to her accidental activism and never-ending battle royale with Internet trolls, Lindy narrates her life with a blend of humor and pathos that manages to make a trip to the abortion clinic funny and wring tears out of a story about diarrhea. With inimitable good humor, vulnerability, and boundless charm, Lindy boldly shares how to survive in a world where not all stories are created equal and not all bodies are treated with equal respect, and how to weather hatred, loneliness, harassment, and loss, and walk away laughing. Shrill provocatively dissects what it means to become self-aware the hard way, to go from wanting to be silent and invisible to earning a living defending the silenced in all caps."--Publisher's description. |
