More, Please by Emma Specter Summary

More, Please blends memoir and investigative journalism to explore Emma Specter’s lifelong struggle with binge-eating disorder, societal fatphobia, and the pursuit of body acceptance. It critiques diet culture, highlights marginalized voices, and examines how systemic forces shape personal relationships with food and body image. The book interweaves Specter’s recovery journey with interviews from writers like Roxane Gay and Carmen Maria Machado.

This book is ideal for readers interested in eating disorder recovery narratives, body positivity, or critiques of diet culture. It resonates with therapists, activists, and anyone navigating body image struggles. Specter’s candid voice and intersectional analysis also appeal to fans of feminist literature and cultural journalism.

Yes—Specter’s unflinching honesty and sharp cultural criticism make it a standout in the eating disorder memoir genre. It balances personal vulnerability with broader societal analysis, offering both relatable anecdotes and actionable insights into systemic fatphobia. Readers praise its humor, depth, and refusal to simplify complex issues.

Key themes include:

• The isolation of binge-eating disorder and the healing power of community.
• The harm of compulsory thinness and diet culture’s ties to white supremacy.
• The tension between self-acceptance and societal judgment of fat bodies.
• The role of media in shaping body ideals.

Specter details her disorder’s origins, from childhood food rituals to adult self-harm through bingeing. She frames it as both a personal struggle and a societal issue, emphasizing how stigma and lack of medical research perpetuate shame. Her recovery focuses on rejecting weight-centric health narratives.

Yes. Specter champions body positivity by documenting her journey to embrace her fat identity, aided by fat influencers and writers. She critiques “body positivity” commodification while advocating for systemic change to uplift marginalized bodies.

Interviews with experts like Aubrey Gordon and activists contextualize Specter’s experiences, linking personal struggles to broader cultural patterns. These conversations underscore collective trauma from fatphobia and diet culture while highlighting resilience strategies.

The book exposes diet culture as a profit-driven system that pathologizes fatness and reinforces racism, ableism, and misogyny. Specter critiques “wellness” trends for rebranding restrictive eating and underscores the life-threatening consequences of weight stigma.

Specter’s prose balances witty, conversational storytelling with incisive cultural analysis. Chapters blend memoir vignettes, reported essays, and polemics, creating a dynamic hybrid format that appeals to literary and journalistic audiences.

Some reviewers note the memoir focuses more on diagnosing societal issues than offering individual solutions. Others highlight its narrow representation of eating disorders, though Specter acknowledges this limitation.

Specter discusses how pandemic isolation exacerbated disordered eating for many, including herself. She critiques the surge in “quarantine weight gain” discourse and its impact on mental health.

Unlike purely personal narratives, it merges memoir with sharp cultural criticism, dissecting systemic oppression while celebrating queer joy and fat resilience. Its unapologetic embrace of a “messy” recovery process sets it apart.