Our Shared Shelf discussion

Her Body and Other Parties is a collection of short stories. Let's use this thread to discuss the short story: Eight Bites

What are your thoughts on this story?
What do you think Machado was saying about Fat Shaming?
This story also comes right after "Real Women have Bodies" what do you think about the placement of these two stories?

placement is probably on purpose or coincidence. the story was sad but most of them are. she abused her fat self before and after the surgery because though it was innocent caused her life to be unbearable. but in the end she still ended up in pain more extreme than prior to it all. you wont be satisfied until you are perfect but at what cost. 76 is pretty young but at least she looks good. i think their reactions about and with food is a big tell of how hard it was. the yearning from seeing and smelling it. i think it touched on more than fat shaming with body/eating disorders i think we all go through a difficult time with food/body especially women. whether its from society, people we know, strangers, ourself, or our mentality. sad to say but we all struggle even the most confident or body positive sometimes that mask can be toxic too because we do eventually take it off then what do we do?

I like that Machado left this as a women's prerogative. There weren't any male characters that insisted that she go through the procedure. But instead that there were women fighting for her to do it and others fighting against her the not. We can blame the male gaze, but women are the ones who are creating and reinforcing these ideals. And as such, I think only women are the ones who can end it.

This one was really poignant, and I agree with Annie that in this case it was very much about how women see themselves and each other. The narrators difficult relationship with her daughter, which she implies has some basis in the fact that her daughter is so much like her-both physically (and therefore wonders if her mother hating her own body means she hates her daughters body as well) and possibly mentally/emotionally, was an interesting complement to her own ambivalence about her body.

Really interesting touch about the lost fat becoming a sort of ghost/companion in the house-so often people who lose a significant amount of weight talk about losing the equivalent of a whole other person (100+ lbs) and I liked how Machado personifies it in this way.