The diet book promotes covert tactics for wives to manipulate their husbands' eating habits without their knowledge.
The podcast critiques the dehumanizing approach towards weight and appearance, dismissing personal boundaries in favor of achieving weight loss goals.
Deep dives
Diet Book Overview
The podcast discusses a diet book that promotes a straightforward low-fat, low-calorie diet designed to help wives manage their husbands' weight. The book, 'How to Take 20 Pounds Off Your Man: A Life-Saving Guide for the Man You Love', emphasizes cultural ideas about dieting, body image, and gender roles. The central claim is that wives should oversee their husbands' weight loss without their knowledge, using manipulative tactics like controlling food portions and deceiving about dietary changes.
Manipulation and Control Tactics
The book suggests manipulative tactics for wives to control their husbands' eating habits covertly. Examples include monitoring and altering food portions without the husband's awareness, serving low-calorie alternatives without disclosure, and surveilling his food intake at home and work. The author advocates for secretive caloric restriction and fabricating reasons for dietary changes, like creating a false kitchen infestation to discard food.
Heteronormative Views on Weight and Relationships
The podcast highlights heteronormative views portrayed in the diet book, where women are tasked with ensuring their husbands' physical appearance aligns with societal standards. The author's perspective reinforces traditional gender roles by suggesting women are responsible for maintaining their husbands' weight, linking weight loss to femininity and attractiveness. It normalizes surveillance and control in relationships, positioning wives as caretakers focused on their husbands' weight.
Dehumanizing Approach to Weight and Appearance
The podcast critiques the dehumanizing approach in the diet book towards weight and appearance, treating individuals as projects for transformation. The author dismisses personal boundaries and bodily autonomy in favor of achieving weight loss goals, promoting intrusive methods like secretive food monitoring and undermining the partner's agency in determining their own health decisions. This controlling attitude reflects harmful stereotypes and contributes to a toxic dynamic within relationships.
This week, Mike and Aubrey take on a manual for creep behavior masquerading as a diet book. Along the way, we cover shopping guides, journalism salaries and the proper preparation of Cornish game hens. We love our curvy husbands.
