Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud

Book excerpt: **One of NPR’s Best Books of 2017** “Petersen's gloriously bumptious, brash ode to nonconforming women suits the needs of this dark moment. Her careful examination of how we eviscerate the women who confound or threaten is crucial reading if we are ever to be better.”—Rebecca Traister, New York Times bestselling author of All the Single Ladies NOW WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY THE AUTHOR From celebrity gossip expert and BuzzFeed culture writer Anne Helen Petersen, a bold, accessible, and analytical look at how female celebrities are pushing society's boundaries You know the type: the woman who won’t shut up, who’s too brazen, too opinionated—too much. Sometimes she's the life of the party; other times she's the center of gossip. She's the unruly woman, and she's on eof the most provocative, powerful forms of womanhood today. There have been unruly women for as long as there have been boundaries of what constitutes acceptable "feminine" behavior, but there's evidence that she's on the rise--more visible and less easily dismissed. In Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud, Anne Helen Petersen uses the lens of “unruliness” to explore the ascension of contemporary pop culture powerhouses, from Serena Williams to Kim Kardashian to Hillary Clinton. Petersen explores why the public loves to love (and hate) these controversial figures, each of who has been conceived as "too" something: too queer, too strong, too honest, too old, too pregnant, too shrill, too much. With its brisk, incisve analysis, Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud is a conversation-starting book on what makes and breaks famous women today. “Must-read list.”—Entertainment Weekly Named one of Cosmopolitan’s “Books You Won't Be Able to Put Down This Summer” Selected as one of Amazon's “Best Books of the Month” A Refinery29 Editors' Pick